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Welcome to Hip Hop Movie Club, the show that harmonizes the rhythm of hip hop with the

magic of movies.

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Today we're discussing Last Holiday, the 2006 romantic comedy drama starring Queen Latifah

and LL Cool J.

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We are three old heads who put their old heads together to vibe on these films for you.

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I'm Dyno Wright, podcaster, filmmaker, longtime hip hop fan, and I'm reading Questlove's

new book, Hip Hop is History.

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I'm JB, 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, long time Hip-Hop fan, and all I do is win, win, win

no matter what.

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I'm Boogie, a DJ, long time hip hop fan, and I'm currently stuck between the holiday music

and Kendrick's GNX album.

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What a time to be alive.

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In this episode, we'll answer the question, should you add last holiday to your holiday

rotation?

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Last Holiday follows Georgia Byrd played by Queen Latifah, a shy, hardworking department

store clerk who discovers that she has a terminal illness and decides to spend her

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remaining days living life to the fullest.

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Trading her modest routine for a luxurious European adventure, she embraces fine dining,

daring adventures, and inspires others around her to rethink their priorities.

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Packed with heart, humor and Queen Latifah's infectious charm, it's a feel-good story

about living boldly and savoring every moment.

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And here are five things you need to know about last holiday.

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Number one, All hail the queen again.

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Queen Latifah shines, proving she's just as iconic on screen as she is in hip hop,

effortlessly carrying this feel good film.

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Number two, live your best life.

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The movie's mantra, stop playing small.

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Embrace your dreams and take bold leaps.

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A vibe that echoes hip hop's go big or go home energy.

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Number three, know what you want.

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Don't live for other people.

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Number four, Underdog Energy,

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this story of unexpected triumph and transformation hits home with the hip hop spirit of rising against the odds.

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And number five, a real one on screen, Georgia Byrd's authentic, relatable character brings depth and joy to the genre.

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and we have a special guest via audio clip.

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Okay, I’m Dr. A. I am

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Mrs. DynoWright

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I guess Dr. Mrs. DynoWright.

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And Last Holiday is one of my

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absolute favorite movies,

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I watch it every year at Christmastime.

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Nice, nice.

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Ha ha ha.

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Yeah.

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Doctor A, I like it.

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Thank

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Thank you, Dr.

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A.

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All right.

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So shall we dig into the five takeaways?

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First one, as Dyno Wright mentioned, all hail the queen again.

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Queen Latifah shines.

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And I always had to kick it off to our resident expert on all things, Queen Latifah, Mr.

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Boogie, our correspondent, Boogie, talk about Queen Latifah's elegance, dominance,

wonderful talents on this feel good film.

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Yeah, Queen Latifah is an absolute gem in this film.

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I mean, you can't help but to root for Georgia Byrd.

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I mean, you see her playing a character completely opposite her in real life.

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I mean, she's so shy and withdrawn to herself.

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She's just really trying to live life day to day.

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She has a set routine that she follows.

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She goes to church religiously, for lack of better words.

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But yeah, she's pretty much a homebody.

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She goes home and she makes these fabulous cooking meals that she watches on TV, but she doesn't even enjoy them.

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She feeds her neighbor and his grandfather the meals and she eats her diet, what's that called?

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Lean cuisine.

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Yeah, she eats her lean cuisine.

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Like she's making all this good food, she doesn't even eat it.

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And then like even as far as like, you know, going to work and.

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She has a crush on the gentleman that she works with and she's afraid to say anything.

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And then we see the turnaround in her life where she realizes that she's gonna die.

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And she just starts saying, you know what?

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I'm gonna go live out these dreams that I have in my possibilities book.

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She withdraws her money and she just flies across the pond to Europe, books in a luxurious

hotel.

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And she starts meeting all these rubbing shoulders with these, you know.

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people are there and then while she's there, she's like dropping little nuggets of

information on them that, you know, make them rethink themselves and how they live in

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their lives.

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While she's out here

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thinking that she's gonna live her last days,

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doing things that she never thought she would do in her life, you know, I'm not gonna get into all the

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specifics, but you can't help but to root for them in the charisma that she brings to that

character is very infectious and.

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You know, I've watched this movie a lot.

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I really enjoyed this film.

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As Dr.

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A said, it's one of my favorites as well.

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But yeah, she absolutely shines on this film.

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Yeah, I agree.

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I mean, she's so likable, relatable, and you said quiet, caretaker, churchgoing.

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Even when she's diagnosed, she doesn't really panic or flip out.

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She doesn't make it known to anyone, really.

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And she just kind of embraces her dreams and lives life to the fullest, as we mentioned.

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Hard not to like her.

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this, again, pioneering performance,

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Female hip hop artist, this is the year 2006, no one was doing anything like this.

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And so she really influenced so many others that would follow in her footsteps and proved

that a hip hop artist could translate easily to the big screen.

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Yep.

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Yeah, it's almost like she does this effortlessly.

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It's so good that it looks easy.

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I'm sure it's not easy.

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And that's the kind of skill she has.

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And also, talking about hip hop legends, LL Cool J plays the love interest and he's so

good in this.

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playing someone who actually gets rejected at first, you she rejects him at first, because

she's too shy.

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And you really see the depth of his acting ability when he starts running towards, through

the avalanche.

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He's going to make it no matter what.

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Yeah, he's sneaky good in this movie,

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Yeah.

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And we've spoken about this at length, that this generation, younger generation, probably

don't know too much about Queen Latifah's hip hop career because she's done so much on the

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big screen and television and movies, et cetera.

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And she's accomplished so much that it almost minimizes her amazing hip hop

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career as well, which had great, great, great deal of depth and breadth and

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classical singing, et cetera.

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She's done it all.

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And LL Cool J too, LL Cool J, I mean, he had a more expansive hip hop career and he's

still producing albums, the most recent one produced by Q-tip.

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But his acting career took off too and he's accomplished almost as much on the big screen and on TV as he had in rapping.

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has something to say about him too.

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I'll play it right now.

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Ladies love Cool J. This lady included.

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Love it.

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yeah.

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That is so, so good.

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So good.

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Yep.

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Yeah.

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played Let's Get It On, that clip in the movie when she was concussed clearly and was

having that vision, all the ladies were probably salivating over LL Cool J in that scene.

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My wife always loved LL Cool J to this day as well.

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know they say, he fine.

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He fine, he fine.

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The funniest thing about that whole clip is that that's not even his character in the

movie.

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That's not even him.

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Like he's completely opposite that.

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That's what makes it even funnier.

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Yeah, yeah, that's what saying.

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you know, he's such a he has such a persona as a ladies man.

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like, Sean Williams is not the ladies man, even though like he could gonna have anybody.

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Yeah.

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Where have you gone, Jane Adams?

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wow.

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So the next takeaway is live your best life.

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That's the movie's mantra.

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Stop playing small, embrace your dreams, take those bold leaps and it kind of echoes hip

hop.

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Go big or go home, that type of energy.

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So boogie, live your best life.

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Talk about some of the things that Georgia Byrd did, Georgia Byrd in this movie did to try

to accomplish that.

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Absolutely.

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So Georgia had a book of possibilities and these were things that she always wanted to do,

but she just never thought that she would get around to them, especially when she realized

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she was dying.

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So one of the things that she wanted to do was to go to this, this hotel, the Grand Pupp and meet Chef Didier.

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So she withdraws all of her money from her 401ks and trips across the pond.

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And the crazy thing about it is while she was on her flight.

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She got into it with the guy on the flight and they were saying, you should have booked

first class.

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And she's like, well, how much?

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And she immediately upgraded on the plane to first class, gets to the airport and instead of catching a standard cab,

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she helicopters in to the hotel and it catches everyone's

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attention while she's flying in.

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She gets to the hotel, her room wasn't ready.

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And she said, well, what's available?

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booking a presidential suite, you know, while she's there, she's like, all right, I'm

gonna take some ski lessons, I'm gonna go to the spa.

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She's doing all of these different spa treatments while she's there.

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And she goes snowboarding, she goes base jumping, you know, and like she goes to the casino, she gambles and wins money.

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She goes to a concert benefit with the one and only Smokey Robinson.

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I mean, she...

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random cameo

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And then not only does she meet Chef Didier, but she becomes friends with him because he

embraces her love for food, her love and passion for good food.

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So he personally comes out and meets her.

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They have a lengthy conversation while everyone else that wanted to meet him is sitting there watching,

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trying to figure out who she is and how she had this influence like that.

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And because they became friends, she ends up cooking alongside of him when his staff is

stranded.

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at home because of the avalanche.

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It's just amazing, like all these different things that she's doing.

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And on the flip side, Sean actually comes looking for her and there you have it, ya know,

rom-com moment.

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But, you know, it goes full circle

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because one of the things that she wanted to do

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and she actually expressed it as she wanted to do was open a small bistro restaurant.

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that everything happens full circle.

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And she accomplished all her goals.

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And it was great to see that she embraced it and just took off and did what she wanted to

do.

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you

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Amazing

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Yeah, I mean, a lot of great lessons to be learned in this movie, Live Life to the Fullest.

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I had taken some notes down.

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It reminded me of the Tim McGraw song.

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I'm not a huge country fan, but I have a soft spot for Tim McGraw and a few others.

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But he had a song that came out two years prior called Live Like You Were Dying.

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And it's about his father that had been diagnosed with cancer, I believe, or I think,

yeah, I think he had brain cancer.

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Tug McGraw, the former pitcher for the Phillies and a few other teams.

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So in that song, he talks about,

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he went skydiving, Rocky Mountain climbing, spent 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Manchu, all these types of things that he just lived

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like he was dying.

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And I was wondering if maybe they modeled some of this off of that experience.

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But it really teaches just, you know, have all these possibilities.

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Our time on this earth is finite, unfortunately.

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and you're not gonna take it with you.

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So she was forced to act in this way, but just by emboldening yourself to do all this

stuff, it turned out great.

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And then also opening the bistro in New Orleans reminded me of the Disney movie, Princess

and the Frog as well.

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Tia does that.

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That was cool, but that came after this movie.

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But I liked some of those parallels there.

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Nice.

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Yep.

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And Chef Didier was a Gerard Depardieu.

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He's a, yeah, he's awesome.

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He just ate up every scene.

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So good.

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There's a movie from the 80s, My Father the Hero.

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That's a good heartwarming tale too that he starred in.

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He was, I think, in The Three Musketeers and he's a lovable guy.

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Yeah, I'm trying to think of the movie that he played in where he was like the imaginary

friend of this kid.

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I can't think of the name of it right off the top of my head.

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And Queen, not Queen, but Whoopi Goldberg was in it.

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I can't think of the name of it.

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I should have looked it up.

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Yeah, I remember seeing that as well

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Dr.

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A brings up another point about Georgia Byrd.

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I'm gonna play it right now.

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Okay, so one thing I noticed in the introduction of the movie is that

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Georgia Byrd played by Queen Latifah

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is clearly alone in life.

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She doesn't have any family, but she's not lonely.

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She's already carved out a community for herself.

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She's active in her church.

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She clearly is

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often the young boy who lives next door comes over for dinner.

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She mentions sending food home with him for

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his father or his grandfather.

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So even though she's,

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she could easily be quite lonely,

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she's managed to carve out

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relationships for herself.

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And I think we're going to see that really

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blossom further in the movie.

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I really do see it blossom in the movie, especially the hotel staff and the other guests.

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She changes their lives.

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Yeah, yeah, they all rally around her like, Georgia you gotta come on, come on Georgia,

you gotta come with us.

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She wants to go back to her room and be by herself and you're like convinced her to come

out with him.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Yeah, she had that infectious energy.

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for

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And wasn't that she was being intentionally any way.

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She was just being herself.

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Yeah.

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So I was looking up a little bit more about this movie too and the amount of money that

she spent on the vacation, et cetera.

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And it was estimated at $65,000

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and change on the vacation,

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which included the first class flights, the luxury accommodations to stay at the hotel, I guess spa treatments and all

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that stuff.

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It's kind of funny.

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I guess it's back then, it's probably a lot more now.

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And then she did win at the casino.

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They estimate that she won around $100,000.

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See, I think they may have mentioned she won $100,000.

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So she actually ended up ahead at the trip, but the medical procedures were quite

expensive, right?

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Remember they mentioned that it was well over $340,000 or something.

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So if you do all the math, she was actually in arrears needing money.

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So I think the whole thing happened fortuitously for her where she was able to open the

bistro.

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and live happily ever after with Sean.

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So it was a wild ride, but it's funny if you'd actually analyze how much money did she

spend?

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It's almost like the misdiagnosis, if that didn't end in that happy manner, she would have a major lawsuit against that either Dr.

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Gupta or the company, Kragen and Enterprises or whatever, because she spent all her life

savings thinking she was gonna die.

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Yeah, the Kragen hospital or the Kragen clinic.

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and then with Dr.

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Gupta I quit my job I quit my job I quit my job man

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Sean was about to wring his neck he was trying to get information out of him he had him cradled

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Yeah, yeah.

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like the bodyguard.

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man.

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Another takeaway is know what you want.

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Don't live for other people and that's exactly what Georgia Byrd did.

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Know exactly what you want in life or at least have a good idea about it.

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And we see that with her Possibilities book.

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And Dyno Wright, you were talking about having a vision board or something like that.

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That's another lesson that we were taught in this movie.

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You guys want to talk a little bit more about that aspect?

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Yeah, I think, I mean, the book itself was a great idea.

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I mean, I never thought about ever doing that.

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I mean, even down to the point of her and Sean with their floating heads on their wedding day.

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But yeah, I mean, was a great visual to see her moving towards it.

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And I guess the book actually saved her because had she not had that book, she would have

probably been sitting around miserable.

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you know, thinking she was gonna die instead of out there actually trying to do something

with herself.

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So the book actually helped her in that aspect because it gave her some kind of direction.

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All right, you know what, if I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go on my terms and I'm gonna do these things in this book

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rather than sitting around feeling miserable.

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Like for instance, she's spoken to her sister and her sister's like, you know, I need you

to watch the kids so I can go out and become a singer.

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And it's like, what?

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You know, stuff like that.

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everybody like.

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I feel like that conversation, they intentionally showed that because that probably happened quite often

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where the sister would run off and want to do something and call her,

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Georgia, hey, you know, I need you to watch the kids.

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And then her sister would go out and do whatever she wanted to do.

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While want Georgia stuck with her kids, know, Georgia didn't have any children, you know?

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So I think that book was vital, very vital piece to this movie, very vital component.

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I'll go to Dr.

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A for this one.

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Nice.

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So what's interesting about Georgia Byrd is she

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for apparently many years has known what she wants.

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She's just afraid to go for it.

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You know, she loves cooking.

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She likes her coworker.

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So she, she's very specific about what she wants.

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She's just never tried to get it.

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She's been too afraid.

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I think in a lot of cases,

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people

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don't know what they want

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in real life and in movies.

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And then the movie is about discovering

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what they want.

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This one's different in that she knows exactly what she wants.

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She was too afraid to get it

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and that is all about to change.

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Hahaha.

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great insight there, Dr.

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A.

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Dr. A. on point again.

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I agree.

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Yeah, I think that's something I need to work on is more of a vision board myself.

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Yeah, once in a while she'll get out some magazines, cut out some things and get the glue

stick out and get on the poster board and just visualize what she wants.

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And it's happened.

310

: 00:20:34

I've seen it multiple times in our marriage.

311

: 00:20:36

She wants something, she visualizes it, and then she makes a plan to get it.

312

: 00:20:40

And then she gets it.

313

: 00:20:44

Yeah, there's a lot to be said about manifesting your destiny.

314

: 00:20:46

Maybe go back to like a child dropping wishes or dreams in a jar or something like that

and going back and looking at that and did you accomplish that or goal setting.

315

: 00:20:57

So yeah, it's great that in this movie we are reminded to identify what you really want in

life, what's important to you, where you see yourself in X number of years, et cetera.

316

: 00:21:11

I think for me personally, I think I'm pretty good at saying what I want.

317

: 00:21:16

I think I need to do better at visualizing it.

318

: 00:21:19

Like I think that I need to probably work better on like a board, vision board or some

kind of book or a poster or something like that.

319

: 00:21:27

Because in my head, I know exactly what I want, but seeing it every day or seeing it, you

know, would probably help me better out in life.

320

: 00:21:36

Yeah.

321

: 00:21:38

She can maybe do a workshop for us.

322

: 00:21:40

Yeah?

323

: 00:21:45

Another theme takeaway, take away number four was underdog energy.

324

: 00:21:49

This story of unexpected triumph and transformation, it really hits home.

325

: 00:21:55

And again, we tie it back to hip hop, the spirit of rising up against odds.

326

: 00:22:00

So Georgia's an underdog in this story.

327

: 00:22:02

She comes from very little means.

328

: 00:22:04

You see her clipping coupons, living her day-to-day routine, very modest car, very modest home.

329

: 00:22:12

And

330

: 00:22:14

because of this unlikely scenario where she was diagnosed with a terminal illness, is again, as Dr.

331

: 00:22:22

A mentioned, she goes for it.

332

: 00:22:24

Now that's going to change.

333

: 00:22:26

All these possibilities, she jumps right in and overcomes some of these obstacles based on

that diagnosis.

334

: 00:22:33

So underdog story, like you said early on, Boogie, you have to root for Georgia.

335

: 00:22:38

And it's a fun ride to see her fulfill some of those dreams.

336

: 00:22:43

Pretty much all of them.

337

: 00:22:46

Yeah.

338

: 00:22:46

it's funny because when she gets to the hotel, nobody knows that she's an underdog.

339

: 00:22:51

They immediately assume she's a big shot and everybody starts treating her as such

immediately.

340

: 00:22:58

Like it's amazing how like just going for it, how it changed everyone's perception of her.

341

: 00:23:05

Had she just walked in, had she not even been staying or just walked around the street or

something, they would have just assumed that she was just an average tourist or something.

342

: 00:23:12

But the fact that she goes to this...

343

: 00:23:15

this grand Pupp hotel of all sorts.

344

: 00:23:17

then, while she's there, she's like, know, instead of waiting on a regular standard room, she's like, give me the presidential suite.

345

: 00:23:23

All right, whatever.

346

: 00:23:24

And then she starts, she goes out, she's like, make me international.

347

: 00:23:29

She comes in with these nice fancy European style clothing on now.

348

: 00:23:33

And she's like getting everybody's attention.

349

: 00:23:34

Like, who is this?

350

: 00:23:35

Who is that lady?

351

: 00:23:36

Like, who is she?

352

: 00:23:37

Who is she?

353

: 00:23:38

And meanwhile, she's just a standard, you know.

354

: 00:23:42

at Kragens department store and you know it was like wow

355

: 00:23:49

I'm gonna go to Dr.

356

: 00:23:50

A again.

357

: 00:23:52

The funny thing is the first time I saw this movie

358

: 00:23:55

for the first part of the movie before she knew her diagnosis,

359

: 00:23:58

I thought she dressed pretty well.

360

: 00:24:01

I mean, she had skirts on,

361

: 00:24:02

she had earrings on, she wasn't a schlub.

362

: 00:24:04

But then you realize the colors were always very muted.

363

: 00:24:08

And what I like about the scene where she's clothes shopping,

364

: 00:24:11

you know, post diagnosis is

365

: 00:24:13

she's not trying to change

366

: 00:24:15

how she looks per se.

367

: 00:24:16

Like she's not trying to lose weight or any of the typical

368

: 00:24:19

things that happen in like these makeover roles.

369

: 00:24:21

It's more like she's just trying to express who she's always been

370

: 00:24:24

and she chooses to do that with bold color.

371

: 00:24:27

And I'll be honest, this movie inspired me

372

: 00:24:28

to incorporate more bold colors in my wardrobe.

373

: 00:24:31

Nice.

374

: 00:24:32

Yeah.

375

: 00:24:34

On point again.

376

: 00:24:34

The color, yeah.

377

: 00:24:36

The color palette change was definitely apparent.

378

: 00:24:41

It's like going from black and white to color, like, like, like, like, like,

379

: 00:24:45

I was about to say like the Wizard of Oz, exactly.

380

: 00:24:47

We're not in Kansas anymore.

381

: 00:24:49

or Pleasantville or that movie was.

382

: 00:24:53

Yeah.

383

: 00:24:55

Yeah, and it's funny because like, as Dr.

384

: 00:24:59

A was saying it, it resonated with me because I love colors.

385

: 00:25:05

I wear all kinds of colors.

386

: 00:25:07

I'm bright, I don't care.

387

: 00:25:09

And I walk into a place with like a neon green sweater on and a neon green fitted hat matching it and don't even care.

388

: 00:25:18

bright orange, bright yellow, I don't care.

389

: 00:25:21

I love my colors.

390

: 00:25:22

And I think that, you know, that's always been a thing for me.

391

: 00:25:26

I've always liked expressing myself that way.

392

: 00:25:28

And it was good that, you know, that was, that mentioned, pickup, but yeah.

393

: 00:25:36

You know, think there's a good lead into the final takeaway, which was a real one on the screen.

394

: 00:25:41

Georgia Byrd is so authentic and relatable, and she kind of flipped the script on some of

these stereotypes and brings depth and joy to her character and to the whole genre here.

395

: 00:25:56

Yeah, I mean, she changed her appearance and she dressed more in high class.

396

: 00:26:02

She hung out in these high class places.

397

: 00:26:05

But she was true to herself.

398

: 00:26:06

Like she told her like it is.

399

: 00:26:08

And I love that.

400

: 00:26:09

know, it's just very inspiring.

401

: 00:26:13

The way she handled herself and made people realize like, hey, we're all just people here.

402

: 00:26:19

You know, we all put our clothes on the same way and this is how I am.

403

: 00:26:24

Take it or leave it.

404

: 00:26:25

Right?

405

: 00:26:26

She's calling people out.

406

: 00:26:28

I'm drawing a blank on her name, I guess the mistress of Kragen, right?

407

: 00:26:34

The Alicia Wood character, yeah.

408

: 00:26:37

Miss Burns, yeah.

409

: 00:26:39

she, kind of opened up her eyes to say, this guy's a phony, right?

410

: 00:26:42

Like he's married.

411

: 00:26:44

You really think he's going to change?

412

: 00:26:46

Like this, this is the guy whose mantra is enough is never enough.

413

: 00:26:50

This is the guy that you really want to be with.

414

: 00:26:52

well he's going to break up.

415

: 00:26:53

You know, it's like, that's, that's a falsehood right there.

416

: 00:26:57

Like can't rely on that.

417

: 00:26:58

Be your own person.

418

: 00:27:00

So all that authenticity.

419

: 00:27:03

it again is contagious

420

: 00:27:06

and teaching a lot of people these life lessons and even chef Didier,

421

: 00:27:09

you know, like down to earth, you know, he's like a deity in the world of cooking, but

422

: 00:27:13

like down to earth person, like just be yourself.

423

: 00:27:16

Yep.

424

: 00:27:17

Yeah, you picked up on that.

425

: 00:27:19

Yeah.

426

: 00:27:21

I'll go to.

427

: 00:27:22

they're cracking jokes and laughing.

428

: 00:27:27

They were like old friends and they had just met.

429

: 00:27:29

Mm-hmm.

430

: 00:27:30

Yeah.

431

: 00:27:31

Yeah, yeah.

432

: 00:27:32

I'm gonna go to Dr.

433

: 00:27:33

A.

434

: 00:27:33

I like how when she gets kind of called out

435

: 00:27:36

at New Year's Eve dinner, she doesn't get defensive at all

436

: 00:27:40

because she has nothing to be defensive about.

437

: 00:27:42

She hasn't been trying to cast any aspersions.

438

: 00:27:45

Is that the right phrase?

439

: 00:27:47

She's just

440

: 00:27:48

been living her life and

441

: 00:27:50

everyone made assumptions about her

442

: 00:27:53

based on what they valued.

443

: 00:27:54

And then when they found out

444

: 00:27:55

it was an illusion, they felt betrayed, but

445

: 00:27:59

they had kind of no right to feel that way.

446

: 00:28:02

And I think she did a really good job of

447

: 00:28:04

explaining herself

448

: 00:28:06

while staying true to herself.

449

: 00:28:10

Well said, Dr.

450

: 00:28:10

A.

451

: 00:28:11

Yeah, yeah, she was on a mission to blow some money.

452

: 00:28:13

That's all she was there to do, blow some money and do some things that she never thought

she would do.

453

: 00:28:18

They made the assumption that she was some big shot.

454

: 00:28:20

Yeah.

455

: 00:28:22

Yeah.

456

: 00:28:23

Yeah.

457

: 00:28:23

Especially the Giancarlo Esposito character.

458

: 00:28:27

Like, kept trying to figure out, like, place her.

459

: 00:28:29

Like, you look familiar, but why don't I know who you are?

460

: 00:28:33

And she doesn't really have to say, she doesn't really say who she is.

461

: 00:28:37

Yeah, I know you from somewhere.

462

: 00:28:38

No, you don't.

463

: 00:28:40

You would have known if you have known if you went to the church service that Sunday.

464

: 00:28:49

Yeah.

465

: 00:28:49

this is another lesson is that you could be so financially secure, but it does not buy happiness.

466

: 00:28:57

And you see how Timothy Hutton's character, Matthew Kragen, the CEO and or founder of Kragen enterprises, the company, right?

467

: 00:29:06

How he's has this epiphany and you know, the mistress leaves him and his whole, it's like a great Gatsby thing.

468

: 00:29:16

Like it's very shallow.

469

: 00:29:18

Right.

470

: 00:29:18

He's really shallow inside.

471

: 00:29:20

You think he's got everything just based on his financial standing, but then he's out on

the ledge, right.

472

: 00:29:25

And contemplating maybe suicide.

473

: 00:29:27

And it's like, wow.

474

: 00:29:29

And you have the humble Georgia Byrd you know, trying to talk him off the ledge.

475

: 00:29:34

You get LL Cool J's character coming out to help too.

476

: 00:29:39

It's like, yeah.

477

: 00:29:42

makes me, that whole scene makes me laugh so much.

478

: 00:29:45

He's like, Jar Jar!

479

: 00:29:48

love the commentary from the congressman in the center.

480

: 00:29:51

like, maybe we need to get up there.

481

: 00:29:53

How many people can even fit on that ledge?

482

: 00:29:54

And they just stand there having a conversation looking up.

483

: 00:29:58

Yes.

484

: 00:29:59

Yes.

485

: 00:29:59

Yes.

486

: 00:30:02

Yeah.

487

: 00:30:04

Yeah, and Georgia is up there breaking it down for Craig and like, hey man, like you have

a chance to turn your life around.

488

: 00:30:10

Like this is not the end of the world for you.

489

: 00:30:12

know, people are upset with you, but you have the means and the ability to turn your life around.

490

: 00:30:19

Like all you gotta do is just do make better decisions.

491

: 00:30:22

And I love what you're talking about.

492

: 00:30:24

Get your pasty face off the cover of your magazine.

493

: 00:30:30

That face right there.

494

: 00:30:34

man.

495

: 00:30:36

It's funny because she has nothing to lose.

496

: 00:30:40

I mean she has nothing to lose.

497

: 00:30:42

She doesn't work for him anymore.

498

: 00:30:43

And she's like, you know what?

499

: 00:30:44

I don't care what anybody think of.

500

: 00:30:45

I'm just gonna tell him how it is.

501

: 00:30:48

And she puts it to him real and he's like, yeah, you know what?

502

: 00:30:50

You're right.

503

: 00:30:52

All right, let's get off this ledge now.

504

: 00:30:53

Let's go back in here and you do better.

505

: 00:30:56

Yeah, yeah.

506

: 00:31:00

So few people actually spoke power to him and Georgia was like the only one.

507

: 00:31:04

Like the other people were not really, you know, putting him to the test,

508

: 00:31:10

but then Georgia did and she was the only one who had the steel to do it.

509

: 00:31:18

Yeah.

510

: 00:31:19

right?

511

: 00:31:19

Mr.

512

: 00:31:19

Adamian, her direct boss was such a jerk.

513

: 00:31:23

Such a jerk.

514

: 00:31:24

he idolized, he idolized Craig and he's playing his CD of his, you know, his, his mantras

and stuff.

515

: 00:31:31

I love how Georgia just bends that thing and rips it up.

516

: 00:31:34

It's funny when she gets a diagnosis, she's empowered, right?

517

: 00:31:37

She's empowered to just say, screw this.

518

: 00:31:39

I don't care.

519

: 00:31:40

You know.

520

: 00:31:41

It is funny as I'm talking about this and we're talking this as a holiday movie.

521

: 00:31:47

Kragen and represents corporate greed and he's unfaithful.

522

: 00:31:52

He's a jerk.

523

: 00:31:52

He's doesn't take care of his people.

524

: 00:31:55

He's only thinking about himself and his own financial standing.

525

: 00:31:58

It's kind of like an Ebenezer Scrooge type thing.

526

: 00:32:02

The Scrooge character, Scrooge or Grinch type character.

527

: 00:32:05

And then you hope that his heart.

528

: 00:32:08

grows a couple sizes, comes around, helping out Tiny Tim, the Scrooge.

529

: 00:32:14

So yeah, that type of theme.

530

: 00:32:17

Mm-hmm.

531

: 00:32:18

Yeah.

532

: 00:32:19

This is a sneaky good movie in that it's a rom-com, but it doesn't really feel like a

rom-com at the end.

533

: 00:32:29

They do wind up together, and that's all well and good.

534

: 00:32:31

It's like they check that box.

535

: 00:32:32

But to me, it's more of like this existential exploration than just your average like meet-cute story.

536

: 00:32:39

There's a backbone of seriousness that makes the rom part and the com part even better.

537

: 00:32:45

I feel like a heavy existential film hiding within this like hip hop, these two hip hop

legends trying to get together.

538

: 00:32:54

You know, her strength comes from within and not from external validation, even though she

gets that also at the end.

539

: 00:33:00

I mean having Emeril Lagasse show up to your restaurant is pretty cool.

540

: 00:33:05

So, you know, it's, it's, I do enjoy this movie and not just because my wife loves it too.

541

: 00:33:14

There's a lot of depth to the movie, right?

542

: 00:33:16

It's not very, it's not superficial at all.

543

: 00:33:20

As we analyze it pretty well here, I think that a lot of life lessons can be learned here.

544

: 00:33:27

And it's funny how you are empowered when you go through something traumatic like that, like the diagnosis of terminal illness.

545

: 00:33:34

A good friend of mine, and we mentioned him recently, he's helped us out with some things.

546

: 00:33:40

He had a major heart issue and he was like in a medically induced coma.

547

: 00:33:44

And thankfully he came out of it.

548

: 00:33:46

Right.

549

: 00:33:46

But like after that, he does not let like the minutia of life really get to him.

550

: 00:33:53

And if something happens at work where someone's, you know, jumping down his throat about

a spreadsheet or something like he's like, you know what?

551

: 00:34:00

It is what it is.

552

: 00:34:01

Right.

553

: 00:34:01

Like I'm not risking my health over this and like he'll be blunt and tell like it is, it's

because you have this.

554

: 00:34:10

awakening, so to speak, an epiphany

555

: 00:34:15

where it's like, that's small potatoes, whatever you're talking about, that's really small potatoes in the grand scheme of things.

556

: 00:34:21

Self-care is important.

557

: 00:34:24

Living your best life is important.

558

: 00:34:25

So we see a lot of that here.

559

: 00:34:28

But wow, yeah, this is a great movie.

560

: 00:34:30

It's great movie overall.

561

: 00:34:35

Great movie, great cast.

562

: 00:34:37

everybody worked well together in this movie.

563

: 00:34:40

Some good chemistry, some good funny moments, some good conversations.

564

: 00:34:46

Mm-hmm

565

: 00:34:48

So it's funny, we mentioned we're going to answer the question about, do you add this to your holiday rotation?

566

: 00:34:55

you know, based on the lessons and the feel good aspect of it, I would say yes.

567

: 00:34:59

I was a little bit confused.

568

: 00:35:01

They didn't really do as much with Christmas overall.

569

: 00:35:04

Like this is a Christmas movie.

570

: 00:35:05

Like you don't think it's called Last holiday.

571

: 00:35:07

It is around the holiday season.

572

: 00:35:09

It happens like Christmas time into new years, but it wasn't like a lot of festiveness, I guess.

573

: 00:35:15

Well, I guess because of the subject matter, obviously, but.

574

: 00:35:19

It wasn't dressed up quite as much in terms of Christmas, in my opinion.

575

: 00:35:26

Yeah, but I would add it to my rotation now, just based on the lessons learned here.

576

: 00:35:34

Yeah.

577

: 00:35:34

an annual affirmation

578

: 00:35:37

Yeah, it almost works like a New Year's Eve or a New Year's Day movie

579

: 00:35:42

because you can think about like, what are you doing, what should you be doing differently with your life

580

: 00:35:46

and like make that into a New Year's resolution or something.

581

: 00:35:49

Right, absolutely.

582

: 00:35:53

I it's already in my rotation because of Dr.

583

: 00:35:55

A, but yeah.

584

: 00:35:58

then like rejuvenation, I should say.

585

: 00:36:03

Well done.

586

: 00:36:03

All right, so you guys want to go around the room and give our ratings for this movie?

587

: 00:36:11

Boogie, for last holiday, should we bring this funky flick back?

588

: 00:36:17

Or leave it in the vault?

589

: 00:36:19

Bring this funky flick back.

590

: 00:36:22

Gotta.

591

: 00:36:23

Mm-hmm.

592

: 00:36:24

Dyno Wright same question, bring this funky flick back or leave it in the vault.

593

: 00:36:28

I am bringing this funky flick back and I have one last clip from Dr.

594

: 00:36:32

A

595

: 00:36:33

The ending always makes me cry

596

: 00:36:35

in a good way, always makes me cry happy tears.

597

: 00:36:39

You love it.

598

: 00:36:44

She loves it.

599

: 00:36:45

Hey, Mikey.

600

: 00:36:49

Needless to say, Dr.

601

: 00:36:50

A will bring this Funky Flick back.

602

: 00:36:53

And I will do the same, bring this Funky Flick back.

603

: 00:36:55

I really enjoyed it.

604

: 00:37:02

Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by your HHMC's JB, Boogie and Dyno Wright.

605

: 00:37:08

Theme music by Boogie.

606

: 00:37:10

We've got a bunch of live events in 2025 coming up.

607

: 00:37:12

You can learn more on our website, hiphopmovieclub.com.

608

: 00:37:16

On February 5th at SteelStacks in Bethlehem, we are presenting a screening of Breakin with

some live breakdancing demos.

609

: 00:37:23

Tickets at steelstacks.org.

610

: 00:37:26

Whether you're listening to the podcast or watching us on YouTube, we appreciate you.

611

: 00:37:30

Thanks for tuning in.

612

: 00:37:32

And remember, don't hate, decorate for the holidays.

613

: 00:37:41

Whichever holiday you celebrate, one or many, be festive.

614

: 00:37:46

Yes.

615

: 00:37:49

be festive and intentional and intentionally festive.

616

: 00:37:52

Yes.

617

: 00:37:53

Okay.

618

: 00:37:54

like it.