I feel like you guys really misread the whole thing with Juliet and Mark The point of the scene was, he was finally being open about how he actually felt, outright saying 'I love you' (albeit in writing as opposed to speech). In the end she kissed him but walked away, and his only comment was 'enough', as in he's going to have to be content with the fact that he WON'T get to be with her. She isn't cheating on her husband, he isn't trying to steal her away or anything sinister like that. He just wanted to be open and honest about how he felt, and while she appreciated it, she wasn't going to leave her husband for him over it. Again, in the end, he had to accept that and just get on with his life, which is what he resolved to do.
I think her kiss at the end was also about how they might have been together if she hadn't met his friend first. She was letting him know that they were all good.
I agree with you 99% which is more than most people who believes that scene is creepy and beyond limits. But I also agree with Stella about that his "love confession" shouldn't include the "I'll love you till you're dead" part. Because, if you really don't have any hope or agenda it means you're praparing yourself to move on from these feelings in some time and it means you're already accepting this "love" shouldn't last forever because you're implying you won't pursue this as you respect their love and relationship. If it was true, I mean if he will really keep feeling that way about her forever, it implies he'll never move on and never love another woman which would be uncomfortable for all three of them. Other than that, even if I was the husband, I would be ok with his grand gesture and her kiss as far as I believe their intention is good and they're not going to betray their husband/friend at all. But, that "until you're dead" part definitely feels unnecessary and contradictory to his intentions as Stella mentioned. I believe if you'll make such a grand gesture to your best friend's wife and walk on the edge of a such a red line you shouldn't be crossing, you should meticulously calculate the weight of every word you're saying on those cards and you should make definitely sure that every massage conveyed there is fully contained in the limits of "just to openly tell the truth once" and "just for this christmas" objectives you've set for yourself.
As someone who lived in the midwest when this film was made and was regularly dragged to the bars with friends and coworkers, I can absolutely vouch for the accuracy of Colin Frissel's arc. There are always 2-4 attractive female townies who will absolutely trip over themselves for a guy with almost any kind of foreign accent.
Yep. I know a guy that went to the US with a Scottish accent around that time and reckons he did pretty well claiming to be Sean Connery's grandson :).
Exactly. On a first watch it is understandable to have frustration that there are plot threads that end in heartbreak, but the film is running the gamut of nearly all forms and outcomes of love from comedic to inappropriate to tragic.
Nothing against Gen Z. But the humour has changed. I’m Gen X, I find nothing wrong with the humour and I love this movie. We're a little too serious today.
Yes and no. Context matters and _sometimes_ "kids today" ( :) seem to ignore that (most jokes can work IF they're aimed at the right target, punching up etc.). But some of the stuff we got away with back then is _quite rightly_ no longer OK IMO (the stuff about Martine McCutcheon's figure for instance is sort of ironically playing on how the UK press treated her at the time but even with that context, it _still_ hasn't aged well to me - IIRC even Richard Curtis has said he regrets the movie harping on about it so much).
@@misterkite Ditto. It's so bad that I genuinely wondered if it was secretly made as a satire of how people eat up romcoms, no matter how awful & unrealistic(to a creepy extent) the characters are.
Yeah, in the 2000's every woman over a size 2 was called fat in the media. Then to be called anorexic when they would cave to the pressure and drop down to a size zero😢
"All three are like actresses from a CW TV show in the early 2000s." You're not too far off. Check the credits history for January Jones, Elisha Cuthbert, and Ivana Milicevic. e: And yes, the footage from the airport terminal was genuine, shot with hidden cameras.
“What happened to Natalie?” he asked for her to be redistributed. I don’t know what that means maybe a different job role but yeah. Y’all were yelling when he said it 😂
There's a whole additional layer to all the chubby jokes. Martine McCutcheon was a pop-star and actress in one of the biggest soap operas in the UK, and the press were always calling her fat. I'd like to think that she was in on the joke as lampshading how absurd that was, but it might just have been cruelty from the writers.
The airport scenes were filmed at Heathrow. In the director's commentary he recalls spending so much time there finding good shots of people meeting up and then having to have production assistants tear through the airport to catch up with the people and get them to sign a waiver. It has been one of my favorites since I first saw it. As you said, it shows all different kinds of love, love that works, love that doesn't, love that fails, young love, and love for a best friend.
Personally I think this film grows with you as you age, as you gather more experience along life's way you empathise and understand differnet characters and their story arcs. Watching the Emma Thompson scene as a mother is totally different to seeing it initially as a 2o yr old. That bit where she smooths the bed spread and composes herself before going back to her kids is utterly heartbreaking and understandable at the same time.
There is a mini-sequel of sorts which is a follow up of certain characters from the show that was put as a promotional thing for the Red Nose Day charity. If you get a chance to watch it, it's kinda cool. It's called Red Nose Day Actually.
This is my second favorite Christmas movie because it has heart. It has unrequited love, it has unexpected love, it has broken hearts. It’s has the love only long time friends can have as well as those who’ve been together a very long time can know. But the key theme as Hugh Grant says, is indeed “Love Actually”.
You do realize this is a romantic COMEDY, right? What would have been funny about Colin going to the US and totally striking out. It was the absurdity of the situation that was comical. There is some grain of truth that foreign accents are often considered to be attractive. This movie's main goal was not social commentary.
Wait, you mean it's not entirely realistic ?? My 13 yr old can't go dashing past airport security and Immigration ?? Next you'll be telling me our school won't have their nativity play on Christmas Eve 😂😂
Because it seems like weird wish-fulfillment. It doesn't really change anything if the idiot who thinks he's a sex god actually pulls a lot of hot women. It would be more funny if someone like Rowan Atkinson did it. (Obviously not as the "angel" character that he played in this movie -- or then again, maybe that WOULD be funny.)
@@annicecooper8105 In _2003_ no less :). Y'know, back when airport security was _super_ lax because the world's worst terror attack had happened 2 years earlier.
Would have been funnier if he went to America thinking he could do well and then being robbed by those same hot women from the bar. Still absurd but also a funny twist.
"Sure. They're just words..." As an older viewer, from an older generation (and much more.. familiar with "older attitudes"), I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say they're *just* words.. Do I understand why people had the attitude they did that was behind a lot of this humor? Definitely. Do I think the more modern attitudes towards weight (and weight humor) is perfect or beyond critique? Probably not. Yet, looking back, I'm glad the attitude has changed. I'm glad people want to be less fixated on someone's size and weight as some of the characters were. Re: Not all of the relationships being great or ending with characters ending up together, or not as earned, I think that's kinda the whole point. Several of them are end really triumphantly, and that's always great and invigorating, but *real* love isn't always triumphant, or perfect. It's also messy, and unrequited (and sometimes unrequitable, for various reasons), and agonizing, and platonic, and familial (which I think is most Laura Linney's-because you kinda expect it's gonna be Karl, but it's actually for her brother, which, having a disabled sibling myself, felt *very* human), and complicated, and *not* always wholesome, and all those things still count as love too.
The beginning and end of film is actual real people saying goodbye and hello/welcome back at airport. Very nice indeed. You edited out the Claudia Schiffer parts! Speaking of editing, the cute stand in couple on the movie set is usually edited out of TV showings of this film as it is hard to show what they are doing without offended standards/practices. Loved Stella's rant on how women are judged. Of course, it is coming from a stunning young woman with a rocking body 'you can judge me and hear me roar.' But good for you! Yes some of the storylines are sad and others more uplifting but that is what makes it a fun and interesting film. I am glad Stella gave up on Julia Roberts showing up at some point in the film as that had me laughing big time. Love both you gals reacting so please keep it up!
How do you not recognize Billy Bob Thornton? ;-) Hey, you wanted someone to say it, didn't you? And isn't he just perfect casting? Doesn't he just look like a Billy Bob? He used to be married to Angelie Jolie, and they did the "exchange jewelry with vials of each other's blood" thing. Oh, to not have kept up with decades of PEOPLE magazine.... At least I didn't keep a stopwatch on how long it took you to figure out this wasn't NOTTING HILL and Julia Roberts wasn't in it. 🙂
Dropping a banger like Love Actually and then dipping? Like the Avatar, when the world needed you two ladies most…you vanished 😢 Hope the best for yall though, thanks for the good times and wishing you much success and happiness
I think you completely misunderstood the fat jokes. I watched the movie when it came out. Nobody thought she was fat. That was the joke. The joke is not that she's fat. The joke is that everyone calls her fat even though we can obviously see that she's not fat. It's a critique, not an endorsement.
The friend with the crush on Kiera Knightly did nothing wrong. He was letting her know his feelings so that he could move on, he wasn't anything but a good friend.
I have zero issue with him revealing his feelings and I don’t even really mind she did a sort of “ok….i appreciate that so I’ll leave you with a quick kiss” but..I’d argue the video thing was still a bit creepy 😂😂😂 like just video them both and then zoom in with your eyes don’t make your own slow-motion eating cake shots 😂😂
The thing with the very last comment is that if there hadn't been "chubby" comments all the way thru, it would just have been a "Ouch, wasn't as prepared to catch you as I thought I were". It's the other 99 times or whatever that makes it all horrible. It IS also my favorite love story in the film; close runners up are: the filming couple and the writer and his Portuguese soulmate.
Ha! I'm a much older dude than you guys are, but I'm not surprised at certain reactions of yours, which is all fair enough, and the writer/director is more than 20 years older than I am, but the one that did kind of surprise me was your reaction to the Collin that goes to America charater. I mean, I get that you would find him cringe and all that, and obviously his story line was an intentional ridiculous exaggeration of a male fantasy for comedic effect, from the perspective of an English writer that's nearly 70 years old now, and I'm not a woman myself, but what surprised me is how matter of fact you were abou how ridiculous the premise was. Maybe with things being more global now, less things that use to be exotic, just aren't anymore, but plenty of women my age or older have admitted to me several times throughout my life how just the accent would do it for them, and the same is probably true for most men as well. As ridiculous as they made it out to be, and again, maybe as a guy, I'm just way off on this, but I think at that time, it wouldn't have been so far fetched that a British guy could just show up in the US, and get attention just for being British. Ive seen it happen. Richard Curtis is a legendary British comedy writer that, along with a string of famous movies in the 80s and 90s, was famous for co-creating the TV shows "Black Adder" and "Mr. Bean" along with Rowan Atkinson. This movie was when he started to also direct his work as well. I'd recommend you check out a couple other of his, that are favorites of mine, "About Time" and "Pirate Radio(US title)/The Boat That Rocked(UK title)".
If being annoyed by a reasonably accurate, if exaggerated set of relationships and behaviors and so on from 20 years ago in another country is going to cause them to be offended as much as they seem to have been in this reaction something like Pirate Radio that's from 30-40 years earlier than this movie, again in a different country, is probably just going to be more offensive, tbh. The way it's possible to watch movies that offend you is very similar to the attitude that ensures the best experience with most fictional movie plots: suspension of disbelief. In the same way, a suspension of applying personal morality at present while watching a movie allows people to be able to watch and enjoy many horror movies and the like.
@nochannel1q2321 I don't know that they were as offended by it as you're making out. They can have their own sensibility and express it. You seem like you're the one that's getting more worked up about it, and leaning into exaggeration. Maybe just take a breath. Chill out a little bit.
@@richiecabral3602 I don't know where you get the idea I was exaggerating. I stated they appeared to find the depictions found in a movie from 20 years ago and another country differing from the contemporary American variants appeared to offend them and given the frequency with which it was brought up I think that's accurate. Having seen the movies the first commenter posted I was stating that if they found this movie to any significant degree that they would find a movie depicting 50-60 years ago based also in Britain likely even more so. You can go ahead and sheath your lance, Mr. White Knight. They've already announced they're no longer going to be doing these reactions anymore so it's unlikely they'll be reacting to the suggested titles at all, even if they found them more enjoyable.
DID I JUST FIND OUT THAT *LOVE ACTUALLY* AND *ABOUT TIME* WERE MADE BY THE SAME PEOPLE? That makes so much sense. *About Time* is one of the most endearing and beautiful movies ever made. It needs more reactions.
Your reaction to this movie is THE BEST. Stella! Your smile was amazing, and you danced, and even your tears at the funeral were the sweetest. I sure am going to miss you two.
One of those movies that I watch every year for Christmas. Last year I even saw it in the cinema, because there were screenings to celebrate the 20th anniversary!
I need for Stella to stop making me cry. 😢 I feel what she’s saying about Liam Neeson and the loss of his wife, Natasha Richardson. I believe the last film she did was Wild Child. She shined, of course.
The Character Colin, played by Kris Marshall, is not to dissimilar to a rather iconic character Marshall plays in an iconic uk Sitcom called "My Family". infact despite this movie being a rather massive move for him, he soon left the show in fear he was being Typedcast as the "young goof".
It's really do not think it is a joke until the Prime Minister says it at the end. The first two times it is mentioned it's her talking about her jerk ex and then the Prime Minister is uncomfortable when the lady calls her chubby in his office. Her family isn't actually calling her fat. It's what her parents have always called her. My grandma's nickname was "Fat", despite her always being skinny, because she was a chubby baby. The only time it is a joke is when the man that loves her complains about her being heavy, which is really a call back to.their first conversation. You watch it a few times and get past the GenZ shock at it even being mentioned you pick up on the other folks reactions a bit better.
“Woman suppresses her emotions to be a good mum for her family”, to paraphrase Stella-Wow, this comment got me seeing my best friend through completely different eyes, thank you (this is obviously a stellar level of insight-I’ll get my coat); Stella, I also love the way you hold yourself with such grace and elegance.
I don't have a problem at all with noticing when a movie highlights jokes and themes that today aren't considered as funny or acceptable. This movie especially happens to have come out at almost exactly the tail end of a very permissive time in pop culture -- when most of the writers and actors came of age in the '60s and '70s when the big thing was to shatter old, Victorian taboos and be openly, randomly sexual and transgressive,. The rethink and recalibration of all that was already underway of course, but the next phase we're in now REALLY clicked over just a few years after this film came out. Actually what bothers me most about this movie -- which I do love generally -- is how Laura Linney's story line goes. I get that she feels responsible for her mentally ill brother. But why does that have to prevent her from having her own life? At the most basic level, she could have just one NOT answered her damned phone! It annoys me every time I see it! But then I do keep watching it, so ...
You must watch/react to Notting Hill! It's great! Same writer. No Julia Roberts here, tho. One of my fave xmas films! ♥ Great use of music in this! In my mind Sarah & Karl wind up together after the events of the movie. Think the Brits were having a bit of fun at Murica 😉 This film deals with all kinds/aspects of love (new/old/heartbreak/unrequited). Keira Knightly is stunning in this! 😍
Excellent reaction, you two. I totally understand why you've decided to halt the channel, but this video demonstrates exactly why you are great reactors. You appreciated many aspects of the film, but judged others through a modern lens -- as those aspects thoroughly deserve. To the detractors in the comments -- y'all realize that, as true as it is that art gets to be what it is forever, future generations get to critique it from their point of view, ALSO forever? I love this movie with all my heart, but also acknowledge that it holds outdated viewpoints that we have thankfully grown past. As the ladies say, this is SO 2003. And that's okay! It's okay to watch movies in the mindset of the era in which they were made, and it's also okay to re-evaluate from a modern standpoint. It's called cultural evolution, y'all.
"Love, Actually" is...fine IMO. I don't really understand people citing it as one of the greatest love/Christmas movies ever made but there are worse films out there (and sure, it's got some stuff that's "problematic" nowadays and presents as romantic some stuff that, even at the time, Keira Knightly apparently thought was maybe a bit creepy but that's how progress works right ?). Also, as Richard Curtis movies of that period go, it's actually _slightly_ less guilty of his usual schtick where "the UK" = "London" and a profoundly middle-class, largely white one at that. Cuz look, working-class people ! Brown people ! Characters that almost certainly didn't go to Oxford _or_ Cambridge ! Liam Neeson _and_ Gregor Fisher both sounding like they come from parts of the UK _outside the M25_ !? Ant (or Dec) are even _northern_ FFS !? So yeah, baby steps but y'know, steps :).
So glad to see this one on yer channel. It would be pretty sweet if you did some others by the same writer, Richard Curtis... Four Weddings & A Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary, About Time...
So glad I looked at the comments and avoided getting annoyed. This isn't my favorite movie or anything but it's better than garbage stuff like Hot Frosty which, I just heard, has 89% approval on RottenTomatoes.
15:11 Well, you just said his name correctly here so how didn't you know? 😁 I don't think this movie wanted you to laugh about the fat jokes. They actually highlighted how bad it is. The last comment in the airport is not a joke, but a thing to show how close they've got. In a loving relationship you can say "you're hairy as a monkey", "you snore like a sawing machine" or anything like that. If you can't...well, I wouldn't like that.
The ' fat shaming ' was a dig at the press who.had been effectively bullying the actress Martine McClutcheon for her yo-yoing weight. Basically pointing out how stupid it was. It hasn't aged well and doesn't make sense if you don't know the backstory.
The typewriter & the VHS tapes dates this film to how young these female reviewers are. Karl so gorgeous played Xeres in 300. But that flick was geared for males. And the love smitten artist is Rick Grimes of Walking Dead fame. It is interesting how the young "feel" with opinion of how it was back in the day & this is based in England. The girls did not know Billy Bob Thorton? No wonder our current world is so dead like Titanic. Good reactions to get a snapshot of the attitudes of the young compared to being 70 years old & still delirious.
Couple thoughts: 1st) i love you guys/watching your reactions, there's always something to be gained from your observations, especially inner motivations. 2nd) i dunno if its something in the water, the air, or your schooling, but this nauseating tendency to overly psychoanalyze completely normal interactions must be a product of severe woke-ism. You are hamstringing yourselves from enjoying the little things, always trying to appropriate a cause-effect when none are needed. is also blemishes your own experience as you are nit-picking the shit out of everything instead of being relaxed. i just don't get it... 3rd) 1980's - 2005 was peak society. It's imperative that you & others understand you've been brought up on incorrect perspectives for societal dynamics. If your approach continues to be rooted in being an arbiter of ultimate truths as measured by flawed virtues, you are never going to grasp reality; you'll just be stuck floating in progressive woke delusions. This movie is extremely playful and flirtatious! - it is NOT presenting relationships/interactions at face value. it teases us w/absurdity for humor. Which is what most romantic comedies did before everything went woke, a.k.a= garbage. I'd love to be able to hear whatever chunk of material it was that you edited out of your concluding thoughts. You need to chill and let go of this urge to always be seen as some sort of highly esteemed moral judge. Nobody did that nonsensical crap pre-2012 because nobody needed to. I hope you guys eventually return from taking a break, we'll miss you.
Love isn't always about romance and a kiss isn't always a passionate one, the whole thing with Mark, Juliet and Peter is obviously about unrequited love, what he did at the door was for himself, if she hadn't found the tape he would have died with that secret and if you think about it when exactly would it have been a good time to pull aside your best friend's girl and say "I love you", obviously since they thought he didn't like her he did what he thought was right and kept his distance and let them be, but with the secret out he's forced to come clean and that's all he did he wasn't trying to win her over he's doing it for himself so he can move on and her kiss was more of a pity kiss, it had nothing to do with love or giving him hope just like the family that kissed Jamie after he proposed that didn't mean they were in love with him just like Juliet's kiss didn't mean that she had any feelings for him.
Personally I think this film is the weaker of Four Weddings and a funeral, Notthing Hill and About Time. Its a bit glossier and I think thats why it became a bigger hit in America. But yeah check the others out
The whole point of the fat jokes was that he clearly thought she was not fat...thus why he joked about it at the end. And she knew that. This just proves gen z does not have a sense of humor lol
This is the most wholesome and awkward Christmas love story ever made. I can relate to every story portrayed… right down to learning an instrument to pursue a girl. Almost everyone can relate to one of the stories. Great reaction!👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾
It's funny cause he put thought into his gift with his wife and no thought into that horrible necklace that he just picked out of the blue. However I'm not sure if that is what the movie was pointing out, or if it was trying to say one is worth £10 and one is £300.... But that would seem stupid to me.
Have things changed that much in 20 years? After all, this country voted for a convicted felon who assaulted more than 20 women. It feels like this movie is very current in the US... unfortunately.
Heh, the end commentary. Why the Keira scene? Wide World of Sports, dudette's! The Thrill of Victory & the Agony of Defeat. The emotional Coriolis effect on da daily swill. I practically don't know any young stars, they sound vapid but one does not know Bill Nighy?
This film is so weird - a real curate's egg. It's essentially a fluffy bubble gum Hallmark Christmas movie except that it's a portmanteau of every version of those movies. There are some brilliant jokes (Richard Curtis is an incredibly funny writer - see Blackadder, Four Weddings and a Funeral etc), but he also has the biggest blind spots. People hated the body-shaming in this movie even at the time and there was big backlash against it. Curtis struggles to write women well (apocryphally Emma Thomson was responsible for most of the confrontation scene with Alan Rickman), and there is an interview with his wife Emma Freud where she says the same thing. He grew up in an upper middle class background of single-sex boarding schools and then Oxbridge. Hence why so many of the women in this movie are cyphers, wish-fulfilment prizes to be won. The only women in this movie who pursue the men are the ones who are either punished (Laura Linney) or vilified (Heike Makatsch). It is interesting though, that Bill Nighy refers to Gregor Fisher's character as "Chubs" as a term of endearment. But ultimately it's a fairytale movie that you're not supposed to take seriously (at least I hope so). Or else we wouldn't be cheering for a PM who goes out of his way to deliberately and publically offend a geopolitical ally because their President got to the intern first, or that the middle-aged man's rebound with a teenager who does not speak his language is the height of romance, or whatever the hell Colin's story was. And yes, even at the time, the Subterranean Homesick Blues was thought of as stalker-ish. It's such a weird movie, but if you treat it as it is intended to be: fun, disposable, sentimental and lightweight then you can't help but enjoy it. I do, anyway.
Watching reactions to this film is a real Rorschach test. For some, the biggest issue is the seemingly unnecessary porn sequences, with others it’s all about the infidelity. You’re the first to mention the jokes about weight.
Nothing says Christmas like fat shaming Martine McCutchine. Funny thing recently Kiera Knightly has a new xmas movie out and a journalist asked her about love actually and if she sits down and watches it with her children at xmas! It's an R rated movie!
Hi girls! This movie was such a surprising success at the time that American movie makers made a replica but they changed the occasion to "Valentine's Day" with big stars and similar story lines (Julia Roberts, Jennifer Garner, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, etc...). I can't believe you didn't recognize Mr. Bean the jeweller in the movie or the actor playing US president (Ex-husband of Angelina Jolie)
All right that's it. That's it! You totally and utterly missed the greatness of The Keira knightley and Andrew Lincoln scenes. You're the 4th female reactors I've seen who totally miss it. There are quite a few men who find their Soulmate but someone else gets them first. So we Kick ourselves forever more and then carry on in failure and withheld emotion forever. It happened to me and was utterly devastating for decades. Then when I saw this movie It blew my mind and I was emotionally stunned. It is the best scene in the entire movie is 1 of the best scenes in any romantic movie ever. There is a scene for men we understand it but all the ladies I have ever seen react to this always hate it, including you two. You don't get it. Just like Emma Thompson has to carry on with her family after her Disappointment So does Andrew Lincoln have to carry on with his life after his life. He never intended for Kiera to find the video, But since she did he had to express it. It is the best scene ever, period.
Appreciated your sticking up for the very nearly zaftig Martine McCutcheon (Natalie). As an actress Miss McCutcheon is always the personification of beautiful real woman charm, even when, ten years later, she was being fatally assaulted by a cheese-wielding madwoman in Midsomer County.
There's actually a good reason why the film was harping on the actress's weight: at the time, she was receiving that treatment in the tabloids, and the film wanted to point out how ridiculous this was. However, the context is completely gone now, and they didn't pull it off that well to begin with, so now it's really cringe. A lot of these stories aren't meant to be wholesome, just representative.
This was one of the biggest Buzz kill, wet-blanket and cynical reactions I have ever watched for this movie. I'm not going to just make a generalized statement without my specific feedback: 1.. Why are you ranting and raving about a movie over 20 years old and the type of humor, concerning one character in the movie? You certainly had no problem throwing water all over Collin's character every time you had a chance to, just because he was written as awkward. Duh, that was the idea. But he was a man wasn't he, and there are never any awkward women, are there? 2. Let's talk specifically about Collin's character. He was written to be an awkward character, they gave him a hilarious and very improbable character arc in the movie, but you couldn't "suspend your disbelief" and just go along with it to enjoy the hilariousness of the situations and dialogue. You do know about suspense of disbelief, right? Or do you think there's a planet where Thor and Loki hang out? All science fiction movies call for huge suspense of disbelief, but you go along with it for the ride and you enjoy it rather than analyze it like a physicist and come out thinking you wasted your money. 3. Regarding Alan Rickman's character. Again, you jumped all over him and didn't give him the benefit of the doubt, did you? Of course not, because he's a man and all men are like that. Did he cheat on his wife… No. Did he sleep with her… No. Did he even kiss her… No. Was he temporarily extremely surprised and flattered by a strong come-on by an incredibly-sexy and beautiful younger woman to the point where he bought her a gift… Yes. But you automatically assumed the worst and that he obviously just totally cheated on his wife and ruined their marriage. Nope, that is not what it showed in the movie, that is the conjecture you came up with on your own. I welcome any return comments. Otherwise my suggestion would be to chill out a little more and to not be so defensive. I know it's not easy being a woman, but it's also not easy being a man for different reasons. You were watching a movie for crying out loud. Lighten up Francis. th-cam.com/video/-ICMg8GV7Zs/w-d-xo.htmlsi=Tce1An1-xiR2uFHK
I'm wondering if they're opting not to continue the channel because of some of the pushback they got for displaying their Gen Z cluelessness about movies older then five years.
I know this movie can be a bit marmite but I really like it! It’s so wholesome and silly! Some of the humour is dated and I know a lot of it is trope-y but I think a lot of the things people have issue with are clearly like…meant to be a take on a trope or obviously a joke. Colin going to America people be like “is that what you think Americans are like?!?” like lollllllll obviously not 😂 it’s so unrealistic and over the top that it’s clearly playing to that. They’re like “oh no we can’t afford pyjamas and we only have 1 bed oh no would you be ok with that?” Like no one wrote that as a serious line 😂😂😂😂
Personally I think it’s clearly an intentional exaggeration of the situation which makes it all one big joke. It landed with me so..I wouldn’t call it completely indefensible 😂
Obviously it’s an exaggeration, but to what end? More power to you if you found it funny, but it’s a whole plotline dedicated to the punchline of “American blondes are so airheaded that they’ll settle for a complete charmless cockbrain just cause he’s foreign” and I think that…sucks, actually.
For some reason, this movie has been a guilty pleasure of mine during the holidays 😅 Also, I've just read a few days ago, that both Andrew Lincoln (the actor playing Mark) and Keira Knightley were against the "Christmas carol" scene, as they found it rather creepy and stalkery...not to mention, Knightley was 17 at the time of shooting, so that made it extra weird... Anyways, Happy Holidays, ladies! ❤
Thank you Stella for talking about the one part that doesn't fit in those confession cards. Unlike most people, I can be ok the "one time honest confession of love in christmas" and even the one time brief innocent kiss (like a mistletoe kiss I guess) in that part. Even if I was the husband, I could be ok with that as far as I can absolutely trust them and believe their intentions and neither part will pursue something more. But like you've mentioned, the "until you're dead" part definitely bugs me. Because, if he really doesn't have any hope or agenda it means he's praparing himself to move on from these feelings in some time which means he should be already accepting this "love" shouldn't and will not last forever. That part definitely feels unnecessary and contradictory to his said intentions. I believe if you'll make such a grand gesture to your best friend's wife and walk on the edge of a such a red line you shouldn't be crossing; you should meticulously calculate the weight of every word you're saying on those cards and you should make definitely sure that every massage conveyed there is fully contained in the limits of "just to openly tell the truth once" and "just for this christmas" objectives you've set for yourself.
As someone who was in their late 20s when this film was released it has always been a bit cringey IMO. I enjoy a few of the storylines but yeah... the cringe has always stopped me really enjoying this one.
Very frustrating movie for me... at least a couple of the story threads could have... should have, been individual movies in their own right, and would have been excellent movies, but they could have trimmed a couple of the characters at least.. especially that excruciating "Colin" storyline. ...Now... While You Were Sleeping, that's a Christmas movie! (And a rom-com too... with Sandra Bullock!) A warm, family based romantic comedy.
Why are you trying to apply the standards of more than twenty years ago in a another country to acceptable behavior in the contemporary period domestically? Expectations for behaviors and responses in 2002 Britain aren't going to be the same as expectations and behavior in the United States in 2024. There's no sense in giving advice to the characters who are portrayed in a period prior to your birth and in a different national culture except to sap any enjoyment you might receive out of the movie.
These two did the same thing with Christmas Vacation. They treated it almost like a documentary, calling out all the slapstick, over the top moments and ridiculous situations, commenting how unrealistic or dumb it is. Too many young people look at movies as a window on the world, when they should just enjoy the escapism, turn your mind off, and enjoy the romance or satire or humor of the film. Just as well they are quitting the YT reaction business, reacting to movies is not something they are very good at.
How do you guys _not_ recognise blah blah blah blah blah?! Mixed feelings on this one (the film - not the reaction). I found it a combination of overtly saccharine and cringingly embarrassing back in the day, and I still feel that way now. It's interesting seeing the reaction of younger people though, as to me the movie came out almost yesterday, and the social mores weren't so very different back then, but you seem to think they were. I recall some of the plot points being seen as 'off' even back then (Martine really wasn't 'fat'). The kid at the end looked about 8, and the girl he liked looked about 12. I *loathed* the way she sang the song (not that her voice was bad) - it's that overly-sung fake-emotion Mariah Carey-esque way of singing that makes me want to wretch. And no UK school play ever had such high production values (this is a fantasy movie though...) For balance - they did mention Joni Mitchell a few times - now there's a voice to love. Also, the speech Emma Thompson gives Alan Rickman was part cathartic, part annoying. It feels too clever clever and overly written to me. She's given other similar speeches in movies delivered in a similar way, and I always feel she comes across as a little patronising when she gives them (in this case the character deserves it). She had a not dissimilar scene where she does the same thing to Jeff Goldblum in 'The Tall Guy' from the late 80's (an oddly forgotten gem).
I feel like you guys really misread the whole thing with Juliet and Mark
The point of the scene was, he was finally being open about how he actually felt, outright saying 'I love you' (albeit in writing as opposed to speech). In the end she kissed him but walked away, and his only comment was 'enough', as in he's going to have to be content with the fact that he WON'T get to be with her.
She isn't cheating on her husband, he isn't trying to steal her away or anything sinister like that. He just wanted to be open and honest about how he felt, and while she appreciated it, she wasn't going to leave her husband for him over it. Again, in the end, he had to accept that and just get on with his life, which is what he resolved to do.
I think her kiss at the end was also about how they might have been together if she hadn't met his friend first. She was letting him know that they were all good.
Exactly. I don't find it creepy at all. He and she both love Peter. Different kinds of love but both equally valid.
How does one handle unrequited love? These two characters handled it very gracefully.
I agree with you 99% which is more than most people who believes that scene is creepy and beyond limits. But I also agree with Stella about that his "love confession" shouldn't include the "I'll love you till you're dead" part. Because, if you really don't have any hope or agenda it means you're praparing yourself to move on from these feelings in some time and it means you're already accepting this "love" shouldn't last forever because you're implying you won't pursue this as you respect their love and relationship. If it was true, I mean if he will really keep feeling that way about her forever, it implies he'll never move on and never love another woman which would be uncomfortable for all three of them. Other than that, even if I was the husband, I would be ok with his grand gesture and her kiss as far as I believe their intention is good and they're not going to betray their husband/friend at all. But, that "until you're dead" part definitely feels unnecessary and contradictory to his intentions as Stella mentioned. I believe if you'll make such a grand gesture to your best friend's wife and walk on the edge of a such a red line you shouldn't be crossing, you should meticulously calculate the weight of every word you're saying on those cards and you should make definitely sure that every massage conveyed there is fully contained in the limits of "just to openly tell the truth once" and "just for this christmas" objectives you've set for yourself.
I take his “I will love you forever” as I am intending to be here for you as a supportive friend.
As someone who lived in the midwest when this film was made and was regularly dragged to the bars with friends and coworkers, I can absolutely vouch for the accuracy of Colin Frissel's arc. There are always 2-4 attractive female townies who will absolutely trip over themselves for a guy with almost any kind of foreign accent.
Yeah, those gen-z girls wouldn't know that. They learned everything about people from ted talks and tiktok.
Yep. I know a guy that went to the US with a Scottish accent around that time and reckons he did pretty well claiming to be Sean Connery's grandson :).
The movie shows what people do, not what they should do.
They're ideologically captured and thin skinned as a result
Exactly. On a first watch it is understandable to have frustration that there are plot threads that end in heartbreak, but the film is running the gamut of nearly all forms and outcomes of love from comedic to inappropriate to tragic.
Emma Thompson's performance is the true acting masterclass in this film - Colin Firth's being a close second!
Nothing against Gen Z. But the humour has changed. I’m Gen X, I find nothing wrong with the humour and I love this movie. We're a little too serious today.
Yes and no. Context matters and _sometimes_ "kids today" ( :) seem to ignore that (most jokes can work IF they're aimed at the right target, punching up etc.).
But some of the stuff we got away with back then is _quite rightly_ no longer OK IMO (the stuff about Martine McCutcheon's figure for instance is sort of ironically playing on how the UK press treated her at the time but even with that context, it _still_ hasn't aged well to me - IIRC even Richard Curtis has said he regrets the movie harping on about it so much).
I'm Gen X, and this movie is horrible.
@@misterkite Ditto. It's so bad that I genuinely wondered if it was secretly made as a satire of how people eat up romcoms, no matter how awful & unrealistic(to a creepy extent) the characters are.
@@misterkite So why did you watch the reaction then? 😜
@DoubleMonoLR it's a film. It's not real..chill 😂
The Julia Roberts-Hugh Grant movie is "Notting Hill".
The joke is that actress was always called fat here in the UK at the time, why they kept referencing it.
Yeah, in the 2000's every woman over a size 2 was called fat in the media. Then to be called anorexic when they would cave to the pressure and drop down to a size zero😢
The storyline with Colin Firth is definitely my favorite one. Sweet, relatable and simple. Just lovely. ❤
"All three are like actresses from a CW TV show in the early 2000s."
You're not too far off. Check the credits history for January Jones, Elisha Cuthbert, and Ivana Milicevic.
e: And yes, the footage from the airport terminal was genuine, shot with hidden cameras.
Part of the point is... love is not all romatic. Cheers and adventure on!
“What happened to Natalie?” he asked for her to be redistributed. I don’t know what that means maybe a different job role but yeah. Y’all were yelling when he said it 😂
On "Doctor Who" it would mean you're breathing her. But I assume it's not that :).
There's a whole additional layer to all the chubby jokes. Martine McCutcheon was a pop-star and actress in one of the biggest soap operas in the UK, and the press were always calling her fat. I'd like to think that she was in on the joke as lampshading how absurd that was, but it might just have been cruelty from the writers.
The airport scenes were filmed at Heathrow. In the director's commentary he recalls spending so much time there finding good shots of people meeting up and then having to have production assistants tear through the airport to catch up with the people and get them to sign a waiver. It has been one of my favorites since I first saw it. As you said, it shows all different kinds of love, love that works, love that doesn't, love that fails, young love, and love for a best friend.
Personally I think this film grows with you as you age, as you gather more experience along life's way you empathise and understand differnet characters and their story arcs. Watching the Emma Thompson scene as a mother is totally different to seeing it initially as a 2o yr old. That bit where she smooths the bed spread and composes herself before going back to her kids is utterly heartbreaking and understandable at the same time.
There is a mini-sequel of sorts which is a follow up of certain characters from the show that was put as a promotional thing for the Red Nose Day charity. If you get a chance to watch it, it's kinda cool. It's called Red Nose Day Actually.
This is my second favorite Christmas movie because it has heart. It has unrequited love, it has unexpected love, it has broken hearts. It’s has the love only long time friends can have as well as those who’ve been together a very long time can know. But the key theme as Hugh Grant says, is indeed “Love Actually”.
You do realize this is a romantic COMEDY, right? What would have been funny about Colin going to the US and totally striking out. It was the absurdity of the situation that was comical. There is some grain of truth that foreign accents are often considered to be attractive. This movie's main goal was not social commentary.
Wait, you mean it's not entirely realistic ?? My 13 yr old can't go dashing past airport security and Immigration ?? Next you'll be telling me our school won't have their nativity play on Christmas Eve 😂😂
Because it seems like weird wish-fulfillment. It doesn't really change anything if the idiot who thinks he's a sex god actually pulls a lot of hot women. It would be more funny if someone like Rowan Atkinson did it. (Obviously not as the "angel" character that he played in this movie -- or then again, maybe that WOULD be funny.)
@@annicecooper8105 In _2003_ no less :). Y'know, back when airport security was _super_ lax because the world's worst terror attack had happened 2 years earlier.
Would have been funnier if he went to America thinking he could do well and then being robbed by those same hot women from the bar. Still absurd but also a funny twist.
It would have been much funnier that way, actually.
I love Bill Nighy in this film!!
Ugh little Sam hugging Liam Neeson at the end always gets me 😭😭😭😭😭
"Sure. They're just words..."
As an older viewer, from an older generation (and much more.. familiar with "older attitudes"), I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say they're *just* words..
Do I understand why people had the attitude they did that was behind a lot of this humor? Definitely. Do I think the more modern attitudes towards weight (and weight humor) is perfect or beyond critique? Probably not. Yet, looking back, I'm glad the attitude has changed. I'm glad people want to be less fixated on someone's size and weight as some of the characters were.
Re: Not all of the relationships being great or ending with characters ending up together, or not as earned, I think that's kinda the whole point. Several of them are end really triumphantly, and that's always great and invigorating, but *real* love isn't always triumphant, or perfect. It's also messy, and unrequited (and sometimes unrequitable, for various reasons), and agonizing, and platonic, and familial (which I think is most Laura Linney's-because you kinda expect it's gonna be Karl, but it's actually for her brother, which, having a disabled sibling myself, felt *very* human), and complicated, and *not* always wholesome, and all those things still count as love too.
R.I.P Alan Rickman.
The beginning and end of film is actual real people saying goodbye and hello/welcome back at airport. Very nice indeed.
You edited out the Claudia Schiffer parts! Speaking of editing, the cute stand in couple on the movie set is usually edited out of TV showings of this film as it is hard to show what they are doing without offended standards/practices.
Loved Stella's rant on how women are judged. Of course, it is coming from a stunning young woman with a rocking body 'you can judge me and hear me roar.' But good for you!
Yes some of the storylines are sad and others more uplifting but that is what makes it a fun and interesting film.
I am glad Stella gave up on Julia Roberts showing up at some point in the film as that had me laughing big time.
Love both you gals reacting so please keep it up!
How do you not recognize Billy Bob Thornton?
;-)
Hey, you wanted someone to say it, didn't you? And isn't he just perfect casting? Doesn't he just look like a Billy Bob? He used to be married to Angelie Jolie, and they did the "exchange jewelry with vials of each other's blood" thing. Oh, to not have kept up with decades of PEOPLE magazine....
At least I didn't keep a stopwatch on how long it took you to figure out this wasn't NOTTING HILL and Julia Roberts wasn't in it. 🙂
Dropping a banger like Love Actually and then dipping? Like the Avatar, when the world needed you two ladies most…you vanished 😢
Hope the best for yall though, thanks for the good times and wishing you much success and happiness
I think you completely misunderstood the fat jokes. I watched the movie when it came out. Nobody thought she was fat. That was the joke. The joke is not that she's fat. The joke is that everyone calls her fat even though we can obviously see that she's not fat. It's a critique, not an endorsement.
The friend with the crush on Kiera Knightly did nothing wrong. He was letting her know his feelings so that he could move on, he wasn't anything but a good friend.
I’d say he definitely shouldn’t have accepted that kiss.
I have zero issue with him revealing his feelings and I don’t even really mind she did a sort of “ok….i appreciate that so I’ll leave you with a quick kiss” but..I’d argue the video thing was still a bit creepy 😂😂😂 like just video them both and then zoom in with your eyes don’t make your own slow-motion eating cake shots 😂😂
The thing with the very last comment is that if there hadn't been "chubby" comments all the way thru, it would just have been a "Ouch, wasn't as prepared to catch you as I thought I were". It's the other 99 times or whatever that makes it all horrible.
It IS also my favorite love story in the film; close runners up are: the filming couple and the writer and his Portuguese soulmate.
Ha! I'm a much older dude than you guys are, but I'm not surprised at certain reactions of yours, which is all fair enough, and the writer/director is more than 20 years older than I am, but the one that did kind of surprise me was your reaction to the Collin that goes to America charater. I mean, I get that you would find him cringe and all that, and obviously his story line was an intentional ridiculous exaggeration of a male fantasy for comedic effect, from the perspective of an English writer that's nearly 70 years old now, and I'm not a woman myself, but what surprised me is how matter of fact you were abou how ridiculous the premise was. Maybe with things being more global now, less things that use to be exotic, just aren't anymore, but plenty of women my age or older have admitted to me several times throughout my life how just the accent would do it for them, and the same is probably true for most men as well. As ridiculous as they made it out to be, and again, maybe as a guy, I'm just way off on this, but I think at that time, it wouldn't have been so far fetched that a British guy could just show up in the US, and get attention just for being British. Ive seen it happen.
Richard Curtis is a legendary British comedy writer that, along with a string of famous movies in the 80s and 90s, was famous for co-creating the TV shows "Black Adder" and "Mr. Bean" along with Rowan Atkinson. This movie was when he started to also direct his work as well. I'd recommend you check out a couple other of his, that are favorites of mine, "About Time" and "Pirate Radio(US title)/The Boat That Rocked(UK title)".
If being annoyed by a reasonably accurate, if exaggerated set of relationships and behaviors and so on from 20 years ago in another country is going to cause them to be offended as much as they seem to have been in this reaction something like Pirate Radio that's from 30-40 years earlier than this movie, again in a different country, is probably just going to be more offensive, tbh.
The way it's possible to watch movies that offend you is very similar to the attitude that ensures the best experience with most fictional movie plots: suspension of disbelief. In the same way, a suspension of applying personal morality at present while watching a movie allows people to be able to watch and enjoy many horror movies and the like.
@nochannel1q2321 I don't know that they were as offended by it as you're making out. They can have their own sensibility and express it. You seem like you're the one that's getting more worked up about it, and leaning into exaggeration. Maybe just take a breath. Chill out a little bit.
@@richiecabral3602 I don't know where you get the idea I was exaggerating. I stated they appeared to find the depictions found in a movie from 20 years ago and another country differing from the contemporary American variants appeared to offend them and given the frequency with which it was brought up I think that's accurate.
Having seen the movies the first commenter posted I was stating that if they found this movie to any significant degree that they would find a movie depicting 50-60 years ago based also in Britain likely even more so.
You can go ahead and sheath your lance, Mr. White Knight. They've already announced they're no longer going to be doing these reactions anymore so it's unlikely they'll be reacting to the suggested titles at all, even if they found them more enjoyable.
@@nochannel1q2321 ha! I am the first commenter!
DID I JUST FIND OUT THAT *LOVE ACTUALLY* AND *ABOUT TIME* WERE MADE BY THE SAME PEOPLE?
That makes so much sense. *About Time* is one of the most endearing and beautiful movies ever made.
It needs more reactions.
Joanna is played by Olivia Olsen, the voice of Marceline the Vampire Queen from Adventure Time. She is awesome.
Your reaction to this movie is THE BEST. Stella! Your smile was amazing, and you danced, and even your tears at the funeral were the sweetest.
I sure am going to miss you two.
Is there channel ending? I didn't see any mention of this.
Ah yes, the movie that makes everyone despise Alan Rickman for treating Emma Thompson that way. 😊
One of those movies that I watch every year for Christmas. Last year I even saw it in the cinema, because there were screenings to celebrate the 20th anniversary!
An extremely entertaining classic! A must-see on many television channels during the holidays! And we haven't gotten tired of it yet!!! ❤
I need for Stella to stop making me cry. 😢
I feel what she’s saying about Liam Neeson and the loss of his wife, Natasha Richardson.
I believe the last film she did was Wild Child. She shined, of course.
Sign guy is just saying goodbye and closing the door on his hopes of love with her. She recognises this and gives him a farewell kiss.
The Character Colin, played by Kris Marshall, is not to dissimilar to a rather iconic character Marshall plays in an iconic uk Sitcom called "My Family". infact despite this movie being a rather massive move for him, he soon left the show in fear he was being Typedcast as the "young goof".
Reaction vids which continually criticise the characters instead of appreciating the humour are wasting our time.
See also half the Python reaction vids. It’s fine not to find it funny, but not to consider that it might be is just weird.
For a very different film, I recommend Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983). It takes place during WW2 and was directed by Nagisa Ôshima.
It's really do not think it is a joke until the Prime Minister says it at the end. The first two times it is mentioned it's her talking about her jerk ex and then the Prime Minister is uncomfortable when the lady calls her chubby in his office. Her family isn't actually calling her fat. It's what her parents have always called her. My grandma's nickname was "Fat", despite her always being skinny, because she was a chubby baby. The only time it is a joke is when the man that loves her complains about her being heavy, which is really a call back to.their first conversation. You watch it a few times and get past the GenZ shock at it even being mentioned you pick up on the other folks reactions a bit better.
“Woman suppresses her emotions to be a good mum for her family”, to paraphrase Stella-Wow, this comment got me seeing my best friend through completely different eyes, thank you (this is obviously a stellar level of insight-I’ll get my coat); Stella, I also love the way you hold yourself with such grace and elegance.
Welcome to 83 different storylines all at once, that somehow ends up mostly charming.
I don't have a problem at all with noticing when a movie highlights jokes and themes that today aren't considered as funny or acceptable. This movie especially happens to have come out at almost exactly the tail end of a very permissive time in pop culture -- when most of the writers and actors came of age in the '60s and '70s when the big thing was to shatter old, Victorian taboos and be openly, randomly sexual and transgressive,. The rethink and recalibration of all that was already underway of course, but the next phase we're in now REALLY clicked over just a few years after this film came out.
Actually what bothers me most about this movie -- which I do love generally -- is how Laura Linney's story line goes. I get that she feels responsible for her mentally ill brother. But why does that have to prevent her from having her own life? At the most basic level, she could have just one NOT answered her damned phone! It annoys me every time I see it! But then I do keep watching it, so ...
You must watch/react to Notting Hill! It's great! Same writer. No Julia Roberts here, tho. One of my fave xmas films! ♥
Great use of music in this! In my mind Sarah & Karl wind up together after the events of the movie. Think the Brits were having a bit of fun at Murica 😉
This film deals with all kinds/aspects of love (new/old/heartbreak/unrequited). Keira Knightly is stunning in this! 😍
Excellent reaction, you two. I totally understand why you've decided to halt the channel, but this video demonstrates exactly why you are great reactors. You appreciated many aspects of the film, but judged others through a modern lens -- as those aspects thoroughly deserve.
To the detractors in the comments -- y'all realize that, as true as it is that art gets to be what it is forever, future generations get to critique it from their point of view, ALSO forever? I love this movie with all my heart, but also acknowledge that it holds outdated viewpoints that we have thankfully grown past. As the ladies say, this is SO 2003. And that's okay! It's okay to watch movies in the mindset of the era in which they were made, and it's also okay to re-evaluate from a modern standpoint. It's called cultural evolution, y'all.
"Love, Actually" is...fine IMO. I don't really understand people citing it as one of the greatest love/Christmas movies ever made but there are worse films out there (and sure, it's got some stuff that's "problematic" nowadays and presents as romantic some stuff that, even at the time, Keira Knightly apparently thought was maybe a bit creepy but that's how progress works right ?).
Also, as Richard Curtis movies of that period go, it's actually _slightly_ less guilty of his usual schtick where "the UK" = "London" and a profoundly middle-class, largely white one at that. Cuz look, working-class people ! Brown people ! Characters that almost certainly didn't go to Oxford _or_ Cambridge ! Liam Neeson _and_ Gregor Fisher both sounding like they come from parts of the UK _outside the M25_ !? Ant (or Dec) are even _northern_ FFS !? So yeah, baby steps but y'know, steps :).
So glad to see this one on yer channel. It would be pretty sweet if you did some others by the same writer, Richard Curtis... Four Weddings & A Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary, About Time...
So glad I looked at the comments and avoided getting annoyed. This isn't my favorite movie or anything but it's better than garbage stuff like Hot Frosty which, I just heard, has 89% approval on RottenTomatoes.
The scenes at the airport are indeed authentic 😊
15:11 Well, you just said his name correctly here so how didn't you know? 😁
I don't think this movie wanted you to laugh about the fat jokes. They actually highlighted how bad it is. The last comment in the airport is not a joke, but a thing to show how close they've got. In a loving relationship you can say "you're hairy as a monkey", "you snore like a sawing machine" or anything like that. If you can't...well, I wouldn't like that.
The ' fat shaming ' was a dig at the press who.had been effectively bullying the actress Martine McClutcheon for her yo-yoing weight. Basically pointing out how stupid it was. It hasn't aged well and doesn't make sense if you don't know the backstory.
The typewriter & the VHS tapes dates this film to how young these female reviewers are. Karl so gorgeous played Xeres in 300. But that flick was geared for males. And the love smitten artist is Rick Grimes of Walking Dead fame. It is interesting how the young "feel" with opinion of how it was back in the day & this is based in England. The girls did not know Billy Bob Thorton? No wonder our current world is so dead like Titanic. Good reactions to get a snapshot of the attitudes of the young compared to being 70 years old & still delirious.
Couple thoughts:
1st) i love you guys/watching your reactions, there's always something to be gained from your observations, especially inner motivations.
2nd) i dunno if its something in the water, the air, or your schooling, but this nauseating tendency to overly psychoanalyze completely normal interactions must be a product of severe woke-ism. You are hamstringing yourselves from enjoying the little things, always trying to appropriate a cause-effect when none are needed. is also blemishes your own experience as you are nit-picking the shit out of everything instead of being relaxed. i just don't get it...
3rd) 1980's - 2005 was peak society. It's imperative that you & others understand you've been brought up on incorrect perspectives for societal dynamics. If your approach continues to be rooted in being an arbiter of ultimate truths as measured by flawed virtues, you are never going to grasp reality; you'll just be stuck floating in progressive woke delusions.
This movie is extremely playful and flirtatious! - it is NOT presenting relationships/interactions at face value. it teases us w/absurdity for humor. Which is what most romantic comedies did before everything went woke, a.k.a= garbage.
I'd love to be able to hear whatever chunk of material it was that you edited out of your concluding thoughts. You need to chill and let go of this urge to always be seen as some sort of highly esteemed moral judge. Nobody did that nonsensical crap pre-2012 because nobody needed to. I hope you guys eventually return from taking a break, we'll miss you.
What break? I didnt hear them mention anything about a break. Did they mention this elsewhere?
Love isn't always about romance and a kiss isn't always a passionate one, the whole thing with Mark, Juliet and Peter is obviously about unrequited love, what he did at the door was for himself, if she hadn't found the tape he would have died with that secret and if you think about it when exactly would it have been a good time to pull aside your best friend's girl and say "I love you", obviously since they thought he didn't like her he did what he thought was right and kept his distance and let them be, but with the secret out he's forced to come clean and that's all he did he wasn't trying to win her over he's doing it for himself so he can move on and her kiss was more of a pity kiss, it had nothing to do with love or giving him hope just like the family that kissed Jamie after he proposed that didn't mean they were in love with him just like Juliet's kiss didn't mean that she had any feelings for him.
46:13 You won't be scrutinised because you've chosen to be thin in order to avoid weight-related comments.
They could pull the Colin (guy that can’t find a girlfriend) and cue card scenes and it would be much better.
So much better back then !
Personally I think this film is the weaker of Four Weddings and a funeral, Notthing Hill and About Time. Its a bit glossier and I think thats why it became a bigger hit in America. But yeah check the others out
Re the Brit in Wisconsin. Remember how easily the 2 hitmen in Fargo got ladies in North Dakota. Maybe its a snow thing(?)
its British humor and in britian we are not that overly politically correct .....back before 9/11....
The whole point of the fat jokes was that he clearly thought she was not fat...thus why he joked about it at the end. And she knew that. This just proves gen z does not have a sense of humor lol
Or, it proves that not all jokes land for all audiences.
Let me guess you are a orange blob minion 🤮
How did you not recognize Billy Bob Thornton as the US president???
Wow so much hate in the comments ! 😵💫
Have to say I love how u didn't even try to censor the profanity or sexual situations in this movie. Ya'll are awesome for that!
This is the most wholesome and awkward Christmas love story ever made. I can relate to every story portrayed… right down to learning an instrument to pursue a girl. Almost everyone can relate to one of the stories. Great reaction!👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾
The film won't appeal to anyone uptight. ;)
My wife loves this movie. It’s okay.
THE REF with Denis Leary is an interesting Xmas movie.
It's funny cause he put thought into his gift with his wife and no thought into that horrible necklace that he just picked out of the blue. However I'm not sure if that is what the movie was pointing out, or if it was trying to say one is worth £10 and one is £300.... But that would seem stupid to me.
Have things changed that much in 20 years? After all, this country voted for a convicted felon who assaulted more than 20 women. It feels like this movie is very current in the US... unfortunately.
THIS 🎉🎉🎉🎉😢
Sure.....
Heh, the end commentary. Why the Keira scene? Wide World of Sports, dudette's! The Thrill of Victory & the Agony of Defeat. The emotional Coriolis effect on da daily swill. I practically don't know any young stars, they sound vapid but one does not know Bill Nighy?
loved this reaction!
This film is so weird - a real curate's egg. It's essentially a fluffy bubble gum Hallmark Christmas movie except that it's a portmanteau of every version of those movies. There are some brilliant jokes (Richard Curtis is an incredibly funny writer - see Blackadder, Four Weddings and a Funeral etc), but he also has the biggest blind spots.
People hated the body-shaming in this movie even at the time and there was big backlash against it. Curtis struggles to write women well (apocryphally Emma Thomson was responsible for most of the confrontation scene with Alan Rickman), and there is an interview with his wife Emma Freud where she says the same thing. He grew up in an upper middle class background of single-sex boarding schools and then Oxbridge. Hence why so many of the women in this movie are cyphers, wish-fulfilment prizes to be won. The only women in this movie who pursue the men are the ones who are either punished (Laura Linney) or vilified (Heike Makatsch). It is interesting though, that Bill Nighy refers to Gregor Fisher's character as "Chubs" as a term of endearment.
But ultimately it's a fairytale movie that you're not supposed to take seriously (at least I hope so). Or else we wouldn't be cheering for a PM who goes out of his way to deliberately and publically offend a geopolitical ally because their President got to the intern first, or that the middle-aged man's rebound with a teenager who does not speak his language is the height of romance, or whatever the hell Colin's story was. And yes, even at the time, the Subterranean Homesick Blues was thought of as stalker-ish. It's such a weird movie, but if you treat it as it is intended to be: fun, disposable, sentimental and lightweight then you can't help but enjoy it. I do, anyway.
That xmas tree sweater is doooope.
In my family, we often say, "Just in cases."
Ha, my wife and I do the same.
It doesn't age quite as well as I'd like, but it still makes me cry (happy and sad) every time)
Watching reactions to this film is a real Rorschach test. For some, the biggest issue is the seemingly unnecessary porn sequences, with others it’s all about the infidelity. You’re the first to mention the jokes about weight.
Nothing says Christmas like fat shaming Martine McCutchine. Funny thing recently Kiera Knightly has a new xmas movie out and a journalist asked her about love actually and if she sits down and watches it with her children at xmas! It's an R rated movie!
I just want to mention that the fat jokes were so weird and out-of-place that they were even criticized back when this first came out.
Julia Roberts? Not in this movie.
Hi girls! This movie was such a surprising success at the time that American movie makers made a replica but they changed the occasion to "Valentine's Day" with big stars and similar story lines (Julia Roberts, Jennifer Garner, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, etc...). I can't believe you didn't recognize Mr. Bean the jeweller in the movie or the actor playing US president (Ex-husband of Angelina Jolie)
We watch this every year. It’s one of my top 4 Christmas movies.
God, I hate this movie. Glad for everyone who loves it but top 5 worst for me
❤❤❤
All right that's it. That's it! You totally and utterly missed the greatness of The Keira knightley and Andrew Lincoln scenes. You're the 4th female reactors I've seen who totally miss it. There are quite a few men who find their Soulmate but someone else gets them first. So we Kick ourselves forever more and then carry on in failure and withheld emotion forever. It happened to me and was utterly devastating for decades. Then when I saw this movie It blew my mind and I was emotionally stunned. It is the best scene in the entire movie is 1 of the best scenes in any romantic movie ever. There is a scene for men we understand it but all the ladies I have ever seen react to this always hate it, including you two. You don't get it. Just like Emma Thompson has to carry on with her family after her Disappointment So does Andrew Lincoln have to carry on with his life after his life. He never intended for Kiera to find the video, But since she did he had to express it. It is the best scene ever, period.
Appreciated your sticking up for the very nearly zaftig Martine McCutcheon (Natalie). As an actress Miss McCutcheon is always the personification of beautiful real woman charm, even when, ten years later, she was being fatally assaulted by a cheese-wielding madwoman in Midsomer County.
There's actually a good reason why the film was harping on the actress's weight: at the time, she was receiving that treatment in the tabloids, and the film wanted to point out how ridiculous this was. However, the context is completely gone now, and they didn't pull it off that well to begin with, so now it's really cringe. A lot of these stories aren't meant to be wholesome, just representative.
This was one of the biggest Buzz kill, wet-blanket and cynical reactions I have ever watched for this movie. I'm not going to just make a generalized statement without my specific feedback:
1.. Why are you ranting and raving about a movie over 20 years old and the type of humor, concerning one character in the movie? You certainly had no problem throwing water all over Collin's character every time you had a chance to, just because he was written as awkward. Duh, that was the idea. But he was a man wasn't he, and there are never any awkward women, are there?
2. Let's talk specifically about Collin's character. He was written to be an awkward character, they gave him a hilarious and very improbable character arc in the movie, but you couldn't "suspend your disbelief" and just go along with it to enjoy the hilariousness of the situations and dialogue. You do know about suspense of disbelief, right? Or do you think there's a planet where Thor and Loki hang out? All science fiction movies call for huge suspense of disbelief, but you go along with it for the ride and you enjoy it rather than analyze it like a physicist and come out thinking you wasted your money.
3. Regarding Alan Rickman's character. Again, you jumped all over him and didn't give him the benefit of the doubt, did you? Of course not, because he's a man and all men are like that. Did he cheat on his wife… No. Did he sleep with her… No. Did he even kiss her… No. Was he temporarily extremely surprised and flattered by a strong come-on by an incredibly-sexy and beautiful younger woman to the point where he bought her a gift… Yes. But you automatically assumed the worst and that he obviously just totally cheated on his wife and ruined their marriage. Nope, that is not what it showed in the movie, that is the conjecture you came up with on your own.
I welcome any return comments. Otherwise my suggestion would be to chill out a little more and to not be so defensive. I know it's not easy being a woman, but it's also not easy being a man for different reasons. You were watching a movie for crying out loud. Lighten up Francis. th-cam.com/video/-ICMg8GV7Zs/w-d-xo.htmlsi=Tce1An1-xiR2uFHK
I'm wondering if they're opting not to continue the channel because of some of the pushback they got for displaying their Gen Z cluelessness about movies older then five years.
I know this movie can be a bit marmite but I really like it! It’s so wholesome and silly! Some of the humour is dated and I know a lot of it is trope-y but I think a lot of the things people have issue with are clearly like…meant to be a take on a trope or obviously a joke. Colin going to America people be like “is that what you think Americans are like?!?” like lollllllll obviously not 😂 it’s so unrealistic and over the top that it’s clearly playing to that. They’re like “oh no we can’t afford pyjamas and we only have 1 bed oh no would you be ok with that?” Like no one wrote that as a serious line 😂😂😂😂
It was "dated" when it came out.
28:30 honestly the Colin plotline is the one *completely* indefensible thing about this movie.
Personally I think it’s clearly an intentional exaggeration of the situation which makes it all one big joke. It landed with me so..I wouldn’t call it completely indefensible 😂
Obviously it’s an exaggeration, but to what end?
More power to you if you found it funny, but it’s a whole plotline dedicated to the punchline of “American blondes are so airheaded that they’ll settle for a complete charmless cockbrain just cause he’s foreign” and I think that…sucks, actually.
For some reason, this movie has been a guilty pleasure of mine during the holidays 😅
Also, I've just read a few days ago, that both Andrew Lincoln (the actor playing Mark) and Keira Knightley were against the "Christmas carol" scene, as they found it rather creepy and stalkery...not to mention, Knightley was 17 at the time of shooting, so that made it extra weird...
Anyways, Happy Holidays, ladies! ❤
Thank you Stella for talking about the one part that doesn't fit in those confession cards. Unlike most people, I can be ok the "one time honest confession of love in christmas" and even the one time brief innocent kiss (like a mistletoe kiss I guess) in that part. Even if I was the husband, I could be ok with that as far as I can absolutely trust them and believe their intentions and neither part will pursue something more. But like you've mentioned, the "until you're dead" part definitely bugs me. Because, if he really doesn't have any hope or agenda it means he's praparing himself to move on from these feelings in some time which means he should be already accepting this "love" shouldn't and will not last forever. That part definitely feels unnecessary and contradictory to his said intentions. I believe if you'll make such a grand gesture to your best friend's wife and walk on the edge of a such a red line you shouldn't be crossing; you should meticulously calculate the weight of every word you're saying on those cards and you should make definitely sure that every massage conveyed there is fully contained in the limits of "just to openly tell the truth once" and "just for this christmas" objectives you've set for yourself.
As someone who was in their late 20s when this film was released it has always been a bit cringey IMO. I enjoy a few of the storylines but yeah... the cringe has always stopped me really enjoying this one.
Very frustrating movie for me... at least a couple of the story threads could have... should have, been individual movies in their own right, and would have been excellent movies, but they could have trimmed a couple of the characters at least.. especially that excruciating "Colin" storyline.
...Now... While You Were Sleeping, that's a Christmas movie! (And a rom-com too... with Sandra Bullock!) A warm, family based romantic comedy.
20:10 2000’s beauty standards were a trip, man.
Great reaction as always!
If you two haven’t seen it, you MUST watch It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) The best Christmas movie ever made!
Love Actually actually sucks
Why are you trying to apply the standards of more than twenty years ago in a another country to acceptable behavior in the contemporary period domestically? Expectations for behaviors and responses in 2002 Britain aren't going to be the same as expectations and behavior in the United States in 2024. There's no sense in giving advice to the characters who are portrayed in a period prior to your birth and in a different national culture except to sap any enjoyment you might receive out of the movie.
These two did the same thing with Christmas Vacation. They treated it almost like a documentary, calling out all the slapstick, over the top moments and ridiculous situations, commenting how unrealistic or dumb it is. Too many young people look at movies as a window on the world, when they should just enjoy the escapism, turn your mind off, and enjoy the romance or satire or humor of the film. Just as well they are quitting the YT reaction business, reacting to movies is not something they are very good at.
Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Part of forming an opinion on a movie is acknowledging when it’s aged poorly.
How do you guys _not_ recognise blah blah blah blah blah?! Mixed feelings on this one (the film - not the reaction). I found it a combination of overtly saccharine and cringingly embarrassing back in the day, and I still feel that way now. It's interesting seeing the reaction of younger people though, as to me the movie came out almost yesterday, and the social mores weren't so very different back then, but you seem to think they were. I recall some of the plot points being seen as 'off' even back then (Martine really wasn't 'fat'). The kid at the end looked about 8, and the girl he liked looked about 12. I *loathed* the way she sang the song (not that her voice was bad) - it's that overly-sung fake-emotion Mariah Carey-esque way of singing that makes me want to wretch. And no UK school play ever had such high production values (this is a fantasy movie though...) For balance - they did mention Joni Mitchell a few times - now there's a voice to love.
Also, the speech Emma Thompson gives Alan Rickman was part cathartic, part annoying. It feels too clever clever and overly written to me. She's given other similar speeches in movies delivered in a similar way, and I always feel she comes across as a little patronising when she gives them (in this case the character deserves it). She had a not dissimilar scene where she does the same thing to Jeff Goldblum in 'The Tall Guy' from the late 80's (an oddly forgotten gem).
Please give the Star Trek franchise a chance.
Please stop going from channel to channel for YEARS nagging people about this.
I dont think so. Not now
I can't imagine anyone could be as entertaining about discovering ST as PopcornCassie.