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Keywords
Hallmark, Christmas movies, Trivia at St. Nick's, movie review, character analysis, holiday films, romantic comedy, trivia, relationships, pop culture
Summary
In this episode, the hosts review the Hallmark Christmas movie 'Trivia at St. Nick's', sharing their thoughts on the plot, characters, and overall execution. They discuss the dynamics of the trivia team, the humor infused with pop culture references, and the romantic developments throughout the film. The conversation culminates in a rating of the movie based on various aspects such as writing, acting, and directing, ultimately recommending it as a must-watch for the holiday season.
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (00:00.43)
Five. Yep, we're recording. we're recording? Yeah. I mean, can crop the beginning out. I didn't know. Sometimes you don't. You don't want to crop out my cough.
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (00:21.358)
Do we have to have this upright here?
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (00:32.654)
What did George Street react I don't know okay, I'm so sorry Hi everyone welcome back to our Hallmark Christmas movie review I've got to say What a treat we're about to give you with trivia at st. Nick's
Sounds like you really liked it. I did we didn't discuss our thoughts. No since we've been doing this really just quietly watch the movies Sometimes we'll say things and look at each other but Yes, so let's get you that beautiful Christmas footage of a trailer hit it
As we're coming out of that trailer, do want to call out that you may be hearing the sound of our bread maker. yes, that then. Yes. All right. So what are your overall thoughts? You go first. I so I could be speaking too soon, but I think this could be a top five for me. Granted, we are still in the very beginning of the season. But all time or just this season? No, just this season. Not not of all time, not of all time. No, no, no. But
Tis the season top five. Potentially don't. Yeah. I did really like it too. It had some great writing, some great moments. I don't believe the acting was there. I was not a fan of our lead Celeste. Max Robbins was adorable, but I couldn't really tell what he was going for, like puppy dog or like serious. don't know. tell ya. They made him work on biting his bottom lip when he was excited.
He did a little cute job at that a few times. Also real quick caveat. Yes, we are in a mixture of Halloween pajamas and our Christmas spode. This is for our viewers, but just in case for those listeners, are in our Mickey's not so scary, basically pumpkin haunted mansion.
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (02:34.795)
pajamas and drinking out of Christmas spode tumblers. Drinking eggnog. Drinking eggnog due to the fact that we were hit by Hurricane Milton, didn't have power for a week and all this that happened to us. We felt robbed. Robbed of our Halloween season. we're just, know, mashing the two, having to be taking down our Halloween decorations. Anyway, just just so you know. Anyway, eggnog. All these. All right, so let's get started. The plot begins with Celeste.
who is preparing to, she's a college professor, astronomy professor. She's preparing to leave or end for winter break, what have you. invites her TA to, in the beginning she does invite the TA to join her on the trivia team, right? Even though there was no opening at this point on the team. was weird. Well think it's probably a minimum of six that they had. Maybe the maximum, they're like, ain't gonna hit it.
it was funny. She asked the TA, hey, what are you doing on the winter break? She's like, nothing. then she's like, I guess you want me to ask you what you're doing. Yes. That was fun. The TA was delightful. was basically doing... Gen Z. Yeah. Well, I think she was basically doing Aubrey Plaza's character on Parks and Rec. Somewhat.
I thought she was fine. she was still fine, yeah. But Celeste is obsessed with holiday trivia at their local campus bar. It's at NYX. Yeah, called NYX. And it's gonna be all Christmas-themed trivia and she's like, we got it in the bag this year because their new team member is Richard. Who has won Jeopardy twice. And so there's a moment really early on in the movie
where Celeste, who is, I feel like, also kind of doing a Leslie Knope from Parks and Rec character, she's like so excited about trivia that's coming up and she's talking to her friend who's in admissions and I'm like, this is kind of nice that for once in a Hallmark movie we have two women talking about interests that don't involve men and at which point after I had that thought Celeste says, plus I'll get to spend all this time alone with Richard.
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (04:50.445)
I was like, well, there we go. That means it did not pass the Bechtol test, but at least she has an interest. Then Richard is not able to make it because he has to go to China or Asia. I think just in Asia. Yeah. Has to go to Asia. For some opportunity. So now they're down one player. But real quick, what they are winning is bragging rights for the year. Also, they're winning the Stan.
which is a trophy, a homemade trophy with like an elf on the shelf turned up inside or upside down in the trophy, the bowl trophy cup thing. It's cute. And that kind of reminded me of the trophy from the league. Yes, the Shiva. The Shiva. Shiva. Yeah, I think that was it. No, it was more of a name, thought, too, that went It was a girl's name. they called it the Shiva. Yeah. Anyways.
And then there was a really cute montage early on of her asking everyone she knows if they would be on the trivia team. It's some cute montages. Yes. I really like the last one was her praying with a nun at a church saying, Hey, would you like to be, would you like to be on our Christmas trivia team? And the nun goes, no, but I'll play really hard for you. said, pray.
Okay, the nun says no, but I'll pray extra hard for you. I thought it was funny that there's a stipulation that they have to have exactly six players or potentially more, which would be weirder, I think, but talk about having to gather some random people. just like that, she has one friend. Yeah.
one friend, and her mother's on the team and it's another professor as well as the groundskeeper of professor, the groundskeeper of the university who is married to her friend that works in admissions, which did we get the friend's name? I did not write it down. Sherry. Okay. Sherry's a friend's name. I did get the sense that this movie had more of a restricted budget than other Hallmark movies.
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (06:56.077)
Because there's like three locations and they reuse them over and over again. I see, but at the same time they had to play six games of trivia. So they made sure that they were really... No, I get that, but I think that was like the... You have to think, when you're writing a script or a screenplay, you have to think of the budget restraints. of course, And I think that's part of the reason that led them to make it a six round trivia. Correct. Rather than just them practicing up for like one trivia. Yeah, no, we were... So that they can do six scenes. We're on the same page. Yeah. Yeah.
But also, real quick caveat as well with Coach Max Robbins. He is the football coach of the university. I'm sorry. He's the, okay, I am not a sports person, especially football. Some form of alliance. He's the offensive coach. Yeah. But they call him coach. So he's a coordinator of a specific thing, the Jigga on football.
Anyway, so as always, football just makes all the money for the university. But, you know, little departments like astronomy, they barely see the budget given to them from the football money, especially since they won some form of a national district or something like that. where it's been like 68 years since they've won or since 68 either way, they placed they did really well. So there's more money. But astronomy is like, we just want a new telescope.
And they can't get it. And so Celeste and Sherry are like, screw the football team. So they both enjoy making fun of football. And so they ended up finally running into this guy. Well actually, he butts in in the lunchroom in the buffet line and that pisses off Celeste. So she gives him a talking to. So let's talk about buffet etiquette. We, as you can tell, have frequented a few.
When you go to one, say at Animal Kingdom Lodge, they will tell you, you do not have to start at the very front. You can go wherever. Don't form a line unless you see a line formed for like the meat carving station. Like that's it. But or else there are ones that say to start at the very front. Specifically, when it is a small, intimate...
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (09:16.309)
I say intimate, basically anything under 200, in my opinion, like a wedding. In the very beginning, like in the beginning of the lunch, you start at the beginning. You are not cutting people. That's my opinion. I don't think you should cut. Switch hands, Paul. I agree. His excuse was that he's carbo loading. So white man, more efficient for him to just go straight to the car. Football people. And I forgot the premise of it, but.
At one point, Celeste was like, I need to go home and watch the finale of the New England Baking Show, which was just atrocious green screen when they just cut to the. Yeah. But so on whenever we got to know Coach Max, we got to know that he will be a Christmas orphan this year because his parents will be on a cruise. This man's 40. You're saying you're a Christmas or I guess, know, different relationships again with your family, with their parents, like I would not call myself an orphan. I'm like,
good my parents for once are actually taking a vacation and not doing other thing anyway but the point is he has international students that he plays with on the football team and they're not going back to their homeland and so they are with the internet and international house for christmas so he wants to be able to you give them a little christmas so throughout the movie he does little things like baking cookies for them decorating their the international student home for them
to make it extra Christmas special. So that was very cute throughout of him loving Christmas because he states something that I actually stated in Sugar Plum about how it, so Sugar Plum Tarot is our Christmas themed tarot deck that we launched on Kickstarter and it has been a beautiful journey of that. We funded as well as you are welcome to hit us up if you are interested in Christmas themed tarot deck.
Anyway, but he talks about how it's the time of the year that people slow down and just take in the season and are a little bit kinder to one another, which is true and which is, what is her name? Celeste needs to learn a little bit to be a little kinder to She's very aggressive, very controlling. Making everyone study. No one wants to study. This is Christmas trivia. And which Christmas trivia could be naming 12 sports people.
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (11:35.403)
that have Chris in their first name. So it's quite a variety of questions. So the way that he ends up on the team is he's just at the bar alone having a drink, sees an empty seat and says, can I join you? And they're like, yes, but you're going to have to be on our team for trivia. And they're like, he's like, sure, I'd love to. is like, no, we hate football. We're not doing it. Get away. turns out the first round is all sports questions. Yes, and so is Seles's mom. he's great at it.
runs and grabs him and it's a cute scene and they do very well. And their name for the tournament is the Quizmas Elves. that's a great name. then you start to see their other, there's four total teams. And the other ones are, we come to Slay, which comes to find out the TA from Celeste's astronomy class.
is on that team and it's a bunch of other students that convinced her. So she's like, begrudgingly says like, yeah, they convinced me they made it sound more fun than what you said it was. So I decided, yeah, why not tag along? So there on we come to slay. Next one is ho ho, here we go. And then the quiz cringles and it's adorable. I love it.
I also love the host of Saint Nick's that is hosting the tournament. Parent's a generational bar that has been owned and he is a delight with how he says the questions as well as how he dresses, his hats, his costumes. Quite cute. The writing for him was adorable. Yeah. I thought it was good. It was great. Okay, so.
After they did so well that round, they're like, all right, you're on the team. And he's like, great, I'll be at every other round. And so they get together to bake cookies as like a team building exercise. That's the second team building exercise. The first one was rock climbing. well, then why do I have baking cookies? Bump cute. Did I not take any notes between Max's coaching? I guess I didn't.
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (13:42.445)
All right, you've got more notes for this part of the movie. Anyway, I can tell you, I don't want to do team building. I get it. They're not being paid, but like physical labor, climbing a rock wall. As you can tell, we're not sports people. So their second trivia round, they do badly because they're not working as a team. And Celeste is just saying, no, you're not allowed to answer that question because it's this guy's department, et cetera.
So that's when Max says, all right, that's it. I'm taking over. I'm coaching this team. We're going to start with some team building. So they do the rock climbing, which is adorable. Then they decide to bake cookies for the international students following a recipe that Max had. And there was this adorable scene. It's so cartoonishly cheesy when Max and Celeste, both in aprons, accidentally bump into each other in the kitchen. And then they look at each other like,
You did bring up the New England baking show and they on that show, they had a four tiered gingerbread cake. it was adorable. And I loved how they showed it on TV. Like they did an extra step. It wasn't just, you yeah, it was green screen and then you know, a fake cake, but it was on their little TV. I liked it. Great touch, Hallmark. And then there's this moment where I think Celeste told Max like an interesting fact about reindeer.
For the rest of the movie, he is obsessed with learning everything he can about reindeer. And the Arctic. And what's weird is I thought he was being sarcastic because his acting seemed so disingenuous. Like they were at a library practicing a scavenger hunt to get answers. And then they got stuck at the library because he was looking at Christmas and winter books. It was nice and it was cute. And he bit his bottom lip. I liked it.
So there's only one speaking non-white actor in the whole cast. And he says that his favorite show is Friends. I thought that was interesting. yeah. So I did enjoy how they brought up.
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (15:51.725)
pop culture things such as friends. even brought up... trivia questions were really cute. Were really cute. One of the sections or topics was Nordic weather patterns. They didn't get into it, but I'm like, my gosh, that's hilarious. And then also... Christmas plants. They brought... Yeah, Christmas plants. He did name them correctly. And they had the... my gosh, I keep forgetting it.
they brought up Hallmark Christmas movies. yeah. During the trivia as a category. they brought Hall Out the Holly as well as Hall Out the Holly Lit Up, which is like one of our favorites, actually like our top favorites. Yeah, I love that that was kind of like a meta thing for the audience to play along. Not just the characters in the film. That was great. And then besides the love interest that is clearly brewing up between Celeste and Max, the love interest between the the history professor and Celeste's mom was adorable. Yeah.
It's really cute. I really liked when they're at the library talking about, when Celestin Max with the library talking about what they like to read, Max says that he likes to read historical fiction and talk about it with his dad. It's a way that they bond. And Celeste says, historical fiction, you mean romance novels for bros? I thought that was a cute line. Ashley is the friend's name. Sherry must be the mom. Ashley.
gets pregnant and she tells Celeste like, my God, I don't know. Like she wants to make a big. When did you notice she was pregnant? I wasn't paying attention to her story. The moment she stated they were, you know, they were doing what they were getting hot chocolate and she goes, no, I'm not in the mood for hot chocolate. And I'm like, we got a pregnancy here. Was it alcoholic hot chocolate? No, it was just hot chocolate. yeah. So.
So Ashley wants to surprise her husband. Well, we don't know that they're married. We know they're a couple. I assume they're married. Okay. I guess I can't recall if they said husband or not. But she wants to surprise him on Christmas Day with the announcement of the pregnancy. And she's like, well, he's obtuse. He doesn't know I'm hiding anything. Then it's cuts to him and Max having a conversation. And he's like, I think Ashley's hiding something. think Ashley's hiding something. And then Max is like, what do you think it is? And he's like,
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (18:16.685)
I don't know. And Max says, maybe it's like a cool gift she got you. He's like, that's it. She knows that I've always wanted to do it. We're going shark cage diving. Shark cage dive. And he's so excited about shark so confident on what it is. adorable. you also, so you brought up about the baking montage. So they're all baking the gingerbread cookies. It's cute. And he's like, yeah, it's my mom's recipe. And they hold up the card and they say gingerbread recipe by Fanny Farm.
They're like, he goes, my mom wrote it down. it was her recipe. So it was cute. So like they made a part of Fanny farm and they did a great job because like two rounds or like the next round that they did that kicks them back up. did a double or nothing at the end. No, this was a, it ended up with a tie and the tie breaking question was this one. Okay. Either way they asked, do you want double or nothing? Okay. Yeah. So, and that's why I said it was the last question. Fine. It was tie breaking. Still the last question, right?
Double or nothing. Never mind. It was still double or nothing. Double or nothing was a different round than the Fanny farm question.
you. But then why do I write down twist double or nothing list 12 ingredients of Fanny Farm gingerbread recipe? I thought the double and nothing was... We're gonna let the viewers and listeners hear this because why would I write that down? you're right you're absolutely right sorry the tie-breaking question was how fast can a reindeer run?
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (19:47.861)
You were correct. Was that a tie breaking or just their general last one? That was the tie breaking. was a tie breaking. that's right. It was a tie breaking. Yeah. OK, so anyway, so back to the show, people. So the double or nothing was list the 12 ingredients that go into Fanny Farms gingerbread cookies. And they listed it. Also, we both did. We were kind of annoyed at this.
Have you ever played trivia at a restaurant? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Applebee's over here is where we would go like every Friday night. Won a couple of rounds. Shout out to Melissa and Jana. If you ever listen to this back in the day, we used to go to Applebee's hit up those late night apps and trivia. the bathroom countertop in my parents bathroom that that's there. I won that from the trivia. yes. A countertop. was a three hundred and fifty dollar.
countertop gift certificate thing. That's interesting. Yeah, and so I gave that to my parents and they got a slab. so see, helped out once in a while. You're welcome, mom and dad. Anyway, so every time they would go and say their answers, which you're supposed to write the answers down and turn them in, they would yell the answers out. They'd be like, it's blah, blah, blah, blah. And then they'd have to write it down. like anyone. it's five golden rings. And we're like, my.
One of the trivia rounds was they had carolers humming Christmas songs and they had to write down what song it was. They were easy, but it was still an adorable setup. It was still very adorable. The Christmas carolers were dressed up. Yeah. They were fully dressed up. Yeah. Yelling answers, silly. and yep, we got our iconic strolls. Yeah. Yeah. So like they would walk each other to their car. Home. They would walk each other home. Yeah.
after But also they went Christmas tree shopping. my god That's right And we saw and we saw a little red truck hauling a Christmas tree little red truck hauling a Christmas tree and Nick literally said like the week before When are we gonna get a little red truck hauling a Christmas tree and we got it We got it
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (22:02.157)
So she there's a moment where Celeste explains to max like why she loves astronomy and I could tell that dialogue was not written by an astronomer because It was not filled with any actual like usable facts. It was like I just like how it's peaceful and black and stars Like that makes this character look dumb dumb, but then later on she's like well after my post-doctorate I then became a professor which also who says the
I don't know. guess whenever I tell people, I tell them about my bachelor's and my master's, she went up and then down whenever she was saying where she got her education from. I'm like, okay, restart, reverse order. All right. Then he invites her to, Max invites Celeste.
to go to a maple syrup farm an hour outside of town. Which I'm like, my, okay, real quick. date ever. There's a dead dad that's in this and he's been dead for a couple of years and she's, you know, they're still grieving. Loss happens and grieving happens for as long as it needs to. could, you know, I'm not saying some people in my family think you need to be over someone that's passed in 30 days. You know who you are if you're listening to this, but also it just years. Okay, we don't gotta be over the dead. Okay, we miss them.
Yeah. And so she's not over her distance. It's okay, baby. It's okay. I miss Lionel. so they would build Christmas villages together, but the kits they would get would have giants, like giant figurines of people. weren't to scale. They were not to scale. And Max made that comment right off the bat the first time they were over at her house watching the
the New England Baking Show. And he's like, what's happening over here? And so she explains that. And then later on, when they're starting to cuddle up to one another and enjoy each other's company, he invites her up on the maple syrup farm. I do want to watch the New England Baking Challenge. If that was a show, I would watch that. Yes. We are fans of Great British Baking Show. Don't get us wrong. So when they get there, it turns out it is actually a
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (24:16.461)
Christmas village decorating. It's quite a variety of Christmas craft. That's right. But what's weird is why did they have to go an hour outside of town to do this? To begin with, I don't know what is available in their said town. Maybe this he knew would be available, craft, all supplies and everything. But unfortunately, it's an hour away.
don't like traveling more than 15 minutes for anything. If I can't also get there in my bike, no thank you. Yeah. Yeah. But I also might've been a little disappointed. I'm like, we're not going to a maple syrup bar. I know. Instead you're gonna make me cry. So they do have a lovely date and they get a flat tire on the way back. So they're gonna be late to the second to last round of trivia. Wait, but you didn't, hold on, hold on, hold on. I missed something. Yes.
So while they're painting their Christmas tree village houses, I don't know why I said Christmas tree. I mean Christmas village houses. He pulls out two largest figurines, one of her, one of him. And they stand next to each other and then he holds her hand and it's a sweet little moment. Yeah. And then she goes, holding hands felt very awkward. I feel awkward. get we were trying, but it was, it was an awkward shot. and then she's like, bitch,
It's time to go. Yeah, we are going to be late for our Christmas thing and then they get the flat tire. Yeah. So they end up missing it, meaning the team that their team was in first place, but they dropped down to third. So we didn't really mention this before. They were almost disqualified on the first round or first game because they didn't have six people. So they were assuming if the two of them didn't make it to make six people on their like fifth or fourth game, however many it was, they would have been disqualified.
but the host after everyone begged said, is I. Is I. I wrote car action scene. when they hit a pothole that leads to the flat tire, it was so awkwardly filmed. They're like, let's just shake the camera. That makes it seem like they're going faster, right? Yes. And then I wrote Hallmark Christmas movie trivia.
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (26:34.463)
I love the sassy TA and then final celebration after they win the provost just shows up out of nowhere in the bars like, by the way, you're getting a new telescope. Right. Yes. Yeah. that they do, which congratulations. who I thought the best actor of this was, was her mother Sherry. Yes. She was like,
believable. So there's also something not performative. Yeah, I am not obviously an actor by any means, but when someone is like exacerbated and sighing and like you really hear all that wind coming in and out of their body through their mouth, it's a sign of like, yeah, I mean, that's Hallmark acting. Yeah, it is. But that mom, she she's a movie actor, like a regular movie actress the way the way she was. She did a good job.
And she, I don't want to say how to force herself to kind of get to their level, but I'm sure she had to. But that actress, she's a good actress. What would you put on the chemistry-o-meter? For... Is that what I called it? Chemistry-o-meter? Yeah. Yeah. a couple of things. I thought those, two friends, Ashley and Celeste, they had good chemistry together.
those, the actors. the friends. The friends. They had good chemistry together. Yeah. The mom, Sherry, with Celeste, also good chemistry, but I feel like it was the mom that was really making the chemistry happen. She was great at it. The two of... Celeste and Max. Max and Celeste. I'm not giving numbers. I mean, I think only like the romantic couples matter with numbers. okay, my bad. Okay.
I feel like we're writing this down anyway. I feel like I'm a five. A five for Max and Celeste. I said repeatedly through the movie, I don't know what Celeste is bringing to the table. I don't know why Max is... of smiles. She looks like a squirrel hiding nuts. don't know... She has a big smile. I don't know why Max is into Celeste. I know why Celeste is into Max.
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (28:47.349)
So for that, I'm going to give them a three on the chemistry. I'll meet her. Yes, that's true because she was very mean and she did. She did apologize, but you know, to fall in love with someone that quickly. I mean, mean, I mean, don't know. mean, it is cuffing season. mean, maybe he's on breaking up. He's probably planning on breaking up with her on the new year. Yeah, you know, it's a good sleigh. So what about Ashley and her husband? I feel sorry for her. Why?
I don't know. He's dumb? No, not he's dumb. They don't really have any scenes together. I guess it's hard to say besides the actual... I would have never known they were married if it wasn't in the plot. I mean, if it wasn't in other characters' dialogue. She, I mean, no, she touched and hugged and kissed him. I don't think he ever started anything with her, so... Maybe a two.
Let's go another three. Yeah. For writing, I'm giving this a six. didn't ask about Sherry and I unfortunately did not get the history. yeah, yeah, I forgot. Sherry and the history professor. There's was a seven. Yeah, there's cute. Even though his acting was, yeah, you know, Hallmark acting. It was cute. It was a good background chemistry that was happening. Yeah. For writing, I'm giving this a six. Acting three, directing three. So it's it's kind of fun when you see movies that have such
dramatic shifts in quality on the different departments. So Trivia at St. Nick's highly recommend you do stream. Really enjoyed it. I think if you're only going to watch half of this year's Hallmark movies, this would be in that half. Very much so. I wouldn't say it's a must watch. I say it's a must watch. All right. Well, we've got another one tonight that we're going to be watching. it's like the weekend of the Knicks. yeah. one's not.
Nick but this one's like you're gonna be in love with three dudes named Nick or something. I'm so sorry It's not about my love story falling over this Nick. I Just what we both swiped on tinder correctly. Yes. Yeah, that's it. I will Merry Christmas and we'll see you tomorrow. I guess Happy Halloween Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving
