it s as sentimental and well-intentioned as a classic christmas film. it s christmas and the kid s getting his [bleep] present. to pull off both of those simultaneously in the same movie? almost impossible. i think if you re going to say christmas and action movies, you kind of have to say shane black because he has made an entire industry around it. hallelujah. i love putting christmas in my movies. it gives you instant context. you keep cutting to bits of christmas and it orients you back in the story. and in lethal weapon, the contrast that christmas gives us offers a lot of chances for being reminded of the potential of people. riggs, the mel gibson character, he s mourning his dead wife.
powerful. it really makes you think about your past, your present, and your future. ah! and, whoa, if you don t change your ways, this is what will befall you. spirit of the future, i fear you more than any other specter i ve seen. a crisis of conscience. a fear that you at the end of your life may have no friends and no family and you may die alone. that is a universal fear. finally, he witnesses this open grave in which he will be buried. nobody there to mourn him. ah! ah! he doesn t know whether he will be allowed to come back to mortal life to correct his past. ah! and by the end of the story, scrooge is a fundamentally different person because he has found the spirit of christmas. christmastime be praised. who s saved by christmas? scrooge is. and a happy new year! this dance of delight that
santa! oh, my god! santa? here? i know him. he found the edge in a very innocent character and, to me, that s what s so fun about it. i know him. the movies i grew up with, like rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, that, to me, seemed like a hook. bye-bye. let s treat this movie like it s a guy who grew up in a 1960s christmas special. hermey! and it was also an opportunity to explore visual effects with forced perspective there s room for everyone on the nice list. and stop motion, all very old techniques. this might be the golden opportunity to find out who you really are. and like rudolph, it s a classic kind of fish-out-of-water story. but will ferrell just brings so much to it. come with me. okay. all he wants is to be accepted and believed. and at the end of the movie we get to see all these people who come to believe. there is that consistent christmas element in elf of change, or realization. merry christmas! ho, ho, ho!
sweet stories. ho, ho, ho. rudolph the red-nosed reindeer ? irresistible. one of the things that s instantly appealing is everybody knows the song. rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. the rudolph story is about an underdog that we know is really the hero. we won t let rudolph join in any reindeer games, right? anybody can appreciate the sense of feeling left out. but then there s the triumphant moment. rudolph, with your nose so bright, won t you guide my sleigh tonight? the idea that this outcast could turn around and save the day and then everybody would go, god, we probably should have treated him better back then. yeah, you know, we were wrong. it s, like, yes, that could be me. i could have saved the day and you would all be sorry. it is a celebration of nonconformists, which was not exactly the staple of 1960s television. so, in a way, rudolph the
froze. and i also froze, and we just kind of sat there in this unplanned, oh, no, now everything is different forever moment. yeah. when i wanted to make a christmas movie, i knew that i wanted to find a way to have tolerance or acceptance. all i want for you is to find the same joy and happiness that you have given me, no matter where it comes from. i think it resolves in a way that is a bit of a fantasy, as was a queer person who came out and lost most of her family. where am i? here. right there. that was very meaningful to have that fantasy of my christmastime and my family loves me. abby, what are you doing way over there? get in here. come on. you know, that s a story that