Hot Frosty (2024) and a Quick Look at Netflix Christmas Romcom Hooks

In the wise words of the Peanuts gang, in A Charlie Brown Christmas, “Christmastime is here. Happiness and cheer.” We are well into December. Everyone has cozied up in front of the fireplace, wrapped in an off-brand Snuggie while sipping on a mug of hot cocoa with marshmallows, and turned on Hallmark Channel for their fix of holiday romance. Or maybe they don’t have Hallmark. Maybe they tried to find those Hallmark movies that all feel like a slightly, very slightly, different version of the same exact story. You know the ones. Big city working girl returned for the holidays to the small town she grew up in, only to discover she loved the small town and the hunky guy from her past.

Those people in front of the fireplace in their Snuggie with their cocoa couldn’t watch those, though. They didn’t have Hallmark. Netflix would have to do. Would you look at that? There’s a new Lacey Chabert Christmas movie called Hot Frosty. It’s about… What? That can’t be right. That can’t be the story that they’re going with. Really? Okay then. Netflix really upped the crazy this year.

That’s not entirely true. Netflix didn’t up the crazy on their Hallmark-style Christmas movies this year. They’ve been doing wacky Christmas romances for nearly a decade. This year simply seemed to be the one where things really connected with people. This year seemed to be the one that really got people talking. That was all thanks to Hot Frosty, and it wasn’t even the only strange Netflix Christmas romance this year.

Hot Frosty, for those that aren’t in the know, was about a small-town cafe worker named Kathy (Lacey Chabert). A mysterious, friendly newcomer to the town, Jack (Dustin Milligan), came into her life and the two hit it off. There were sparks between them, even if Kathy kept pushing him away. You see, Kathy’s husband had died from cancer. She wasn’t sure if she was ready to love again. That wasn’t even the biggest problem. Jack was a snowman come to life!

A woman who was in love with a sexy man who was a living snowman. No wonder it was called Hot Frosty. Those people in front of the fireplace with their Snuggie and their cocoa turned the movie on and were astonished by what they saw. Kathy approached a snowman that looked like a chiseled naked top half of a man, six-pack and all. She put a scarf on him for decoration before going home without a second thought. The snowman came to life, streaked through town in nothing but a scarf, and then stole clothes from a thrift shop. What a strange way to start a Christmas romance.

Sheriff Nathaniel Hunter (Craig Robinson) and Deputy Ed Schatz (Joe Lo Truglio) quickly came into the picture, investigating the robbery and reports of indecent exposure. They added some stakes to the movie because they could take Jack away. The late husband was the emotional obstacle between the love of Kathy and Jack. The police force in the small town of Hope Springs was a more physical obstacle because it could create a physical separation. The only other obstacle would be how Jack would survive when it wasn’t winter, and he warmed up while still a snowman. There might have been a little bit of Christmas magic to bring him to life and to keep him alive. There was no real explanation for either.

The credits began to roll once Jack was really a real boy and not a snowman real boy. The people in front of the fireplace with their cocoa have taken off their Snuggies. That movie was too hot. That scene where the older women ogled the shirtless Jack was too hot. That Frosty was too hot. They needed something to cool down. They started scrolling Netflix again and noticed that Hot Frosty wasn’t the only Netflix Christmas romantic comedy with a ridiculous plot. This was not Hallmark. This was some other, strange fantasy land.

Another recent Netflix movie they stopped on was The Merry Gentlemen. That one might have been even hotter than Hot Frosty. It was essentially a Christmas save-the-rec-centre movie with male strippers. The people in front of their fire with their cocoa passed that one by. They didn’t want to lose the cocoa or the fire to cool down after The Merry Gentlemen.

Further down the line was The Knight Before Christmas. They took a quick peep. They questioned the movie because they thought modern day Vanessa Hudgens was in love with a modern day prince that was in love with a different modern day princess Vanessa Hudgens. They didn’t remember anything about a medieval knight coming to the present day to romance Vanessa Hudgens. Oh, they were mixing this movie up with The Princess Switch. Or was it The Princess Switch 2? It definitely wasn’t The Princess Switch 3. That one had spies.

One of the newer movies they noticed on Netflix was Meet Me Next Christmas. It didn’t seem that strange. The people in front of the fire with the cocoa thought it was fairly normal. Oh, wait. The woman’s romance depended on the acapella band, Pentatonix. Every Christmas movie they found had its own little bit of insanity. Netflix seemed to be taking that Hallmark Christmas blueprint and adding some sort of ridiculous hook to it.

Hot Frosty ruined Christmas movies for them that day. It took the saccharine sweetness of Hallmark Christmas movies and added some plot lunacy. It added a snowman come to life as the romantic interest. It made everyone in Hope Springs have the hots for him. Aside from the Sheriff. They turned Netflix off and did something else. Just as I am going to stop writing this post and do something else.

Before I do that, though, some notes:

• I mentioned the Princess Switch movies in this post.
• Lacey Chabert was the star of Hot Frosty. She was also in Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva La Fiesta! and Black Christmas.
• The other star of Hot Frosty was Dustin Milligan, who was previously in Repeaters.
• Did you notice Lauren Holly in Hot Frosty? You might remember her from Santa, Jr.
• Craig Robinson played the sheriff in Hot Frosty. He was one of the leads in Rapture-Palooza.
• Allan Royal was in both Hot Frosty and The Good Witch.
• Finally, Sherry Miller returned to Sunday “Bad” Movies in Hot Frosty after first appearing in The Stupids.
• Have you seen Hot Frosty? What do you think is the craziest idea for a Netflix Christmas romcom? What’s the craziest idea for a Christmas romcom in general? Share your thoughts in the comments, or find me on Bluesky or Threads.
• Bluesky, Threads, and the comments are also places where you could suggest movies for me to watch for future Sunday “Bad” Movies posts.
• I don’t know what the next post will be. I got sick over the past week and couldn’t get the second post I wanted to write done. Because this one was a romcom, I don’t want to go a romcom in the next post, so I’m going to hold off on As Gouda As It Gets for at least one post. I might watch one of the kids’ movies I’ve got lying around. Whatever it is, you’ll find out when the next post goes up. The name is always in the title of the post. See you then.

Dr. Seuss' The Grinch Musical! (2020)

I’m going to be completely transparent with you to start off this post. It took me a while to figure out what it was going to be. I couldn’t come up with a good topic pertaining to what I watched. That was probably due to the fact that Dr. Suess’ The Grinch Musical was one of the more painful experiences I’ve had while writing Sunday “Bad” Movies posts. I had trouble getting through it. Every idea I came up with didn’t feel right. I settled on just plain roasting the movie in a way I don’t typically do. However, when I began the opening paragraph, the words started flowing, and I found a topic. I found the topic that I could write about. So here goes.

Stories can be told in many different ways. I’m not only talking about movies when I say that. Sure, I’ve mentioned multiple times throughout this blog’s life that originality isn’t in a story, but in how a story is told. I stand by that. Just because Over the Top and Real Steel shared a story about an absent father meeting up with his son after the mother’s illness and the two bonding over a road trip involving a sport, that doesn’t mean that they didn’t have some originality in how those story beats were put together and used. There’s another way a story could be told differently that I haven’t brought up quite as often. The same story could be adapted into a different medium.

Bringing a property to a new medium can lead to some interesting things. Much of the story would likely remain in the new form, but some changes must be made to allow the story to flow properly in its new form. A movie and a television show have different ways of doling out story. A novel and a comic book experience that same issue when adaptations happen. Stage plays, radio shows and podcasts, still photography, and video games each use different storytelling techniques which will require changes made to a story. Even adapting something from animation to live action or vice versa could lead to some major differences.

Those various adaptations were what brought me around to the topic of this post, Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical, a “live” adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! that was produced by NBC in 2020. Only, it wasn’t live because of Covid protocols that were in place at that time. Hence the quotations. This NBC-produced television special was an adaptation of the stage musical, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical. Of course, that was an adaptation of the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

These, of course, weren’t the only adaptations made for How the Grinch Stole Christmas! I quickly mentioned the animated special from 1966. There was a live-action film starring Jim Carrey released in 2000. Another animated version was released by Illumination Entertainment in 2018, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch as the holiday’s biggest grumpy Gus. A horror movie was even made. 2022 saw the release of The Mean One, directed by Steven LaMorte, who runs in the same circles as the people behind Terrifier 2, Terrifier 3, and Stream. A bunch of audio versions of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! were released throughout the years, as well. There have been numerous adaptations of the Christmas classic, with the NBC-produced musical being one of the newer versions.

The strange thing about Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical! was that it wasn’t an adaptation of the source material. This wasn’t a feature-length television special based on the book. No no. This special was an adaptation of the stage musical. It was a third-generation adaptation. The book was adapted into a stage musical and the stage musical was then adapted into Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical! I’ve only seen a few other properties go this way, most notably Little Shop of Horrors (movie to stage musical to musical movie) and Hairspray (movie to stage musical to musical movie). Usually, you just get re-adaptations of the source material. Or so the producers would like you to think.

To be honest, I don’t think that Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical was solely based on the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! I would dare say it was a mixture of adapting the children’s book and the 1966 television special. It had the story of the book but took songs and the green colour of The Grinch from the television special. I would maybe even go so far as to say there was a chain of four versions. The book became the television special. The television special became the stage musical. The stage musical became the television special musical.

Having a chain of adaptations as long as the one that led to Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical! on NBC could feel like a game of telephone. You know the game. One person tells something to another person and so on and so forth, until the message gets back to the first person. That message always gets distorted through its travels, to the point where it might be wholly different when it gets back around. Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical! felt like that. It felt like a retelling of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! that had been filtered through dozens of people.

The first noticeable thing was the green Grinch. The original Dr. Seuss book didn’t have him as a green character. That was introduced in the 1966 television special. It’s a detail that has stuck around in every adaptation since. The stage musical had a green Grinch. The Jim Carrey portrayal was a green Grinch. The Illumination Entertainment version was a green Grinch. Every later iteration of The Green was green. Even the sequel book, How the Grinch Lost Christmas! portrayed the loveable crank as green.

After that, you get the music. That was also a detail added in the 1966 television special. There are few ways to portray music in a book. The lyrics could be there, sure, but the melodies not so much. Unless it is an audio book. The 1957 release of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was not an audio book. There were no songs. It was written in Dr. Seuss’ rhyming ways, but it wasn’t melodic at all. The television special introduced people to classics like You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch and Welcome Christmas. These same songs were reused in nearly every iteration of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, including both the stage musical and the NBC musical special.

Finally, there was the performance. I’m only going to bring up what I think influenced Matthew Morrison’s performance in Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical! Based on what I saw, he gave a performance that was part stage musical and part Jim Carrey. It was performed as if to a grand audience in a theater. The way things were blocked. The way he projected, as if to the furthest person in the back. That sort of stuff. But his mannerisms were similar to what Jim Carrey had in his 2000 film adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It was as though Matthew Morrison used that 2000 film as the basis for his portrayal of The Grinch, and then added some flourishes from his stage background to make it feel more like a Broadway production.

As you can see, Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical took inspiration from a variety of Grinch presentations. It took the story from the book, paired it with music from both the 1966 television special and the stage musical, and added a flourish of Jim Carrey mannerisms to create its own thing. I should also mention the set design, which felt ripped straight from the illustrations of the book. I don’t know if that was ported over from the stage musical or not, but I liked it in either case. It was the one thing I really liked about this NBC musical special. Each of these elements, pulled from different ways the story has been told, came together to form this one. It was the result of everything before it, many inspirations all being mixed. It didn’t necessarily make for a good version of the tale, but it was interesting enough.

A story can be told in many different ways. However, adapting a story into a new medium can create challenges that subsequently have the versions feel unique. A book won’t have the music that a television special might. Animation and live action will allow for different ways to present a character or a world. A stage production will change how a set is presented or how a performance is handled. And a television special based on a stage musical that was filmed during the height of pandemic protocols will have its own limitations to deal with.

If you keep an open mind, all the different adaptations will have their own interesting qualities. They may not all be good, but they don’t take away from what the other versions did. They’re simply a new version in a different format. That is what makes storytelling so interesting. Yeah, the story might not be original. Yet there are so many ways to tell a story that something fresh could be found by simply adapting it in a new way. Don’t you think so?

Now it’s time for some notes to close this whole thing out:

• I mentioned Over the Top and Stream earlier in this post.
• Would you believe me if I said that nobody in Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical was connected to any other Sunday “Bad” Movies? Well, you better believe it. There are no connections.
• Have you seen Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical? What did you think? Do you like The Grinch as a concept? Share your thoughts in the comments or find me on Bluesky or Threads.
• If there’s a movie you think I should check out for Sunday “Bad” Movies, let me know. Drop it in the comments or hit me up on Bluesky or Threads.
• Okay, now for the next post. I’m hoping to get one more in before Christmas. Maybe two, if I get all the writing done that I want done. I think, because it’s slightly more popular, I’m going to write a little something about Hot Frosty. I may get around to Our Little Secret, as well. I know what I want to write about both. It’s just a matter of finding the time. Anyway, see you soon with a post about Hot Frosty.

The Substitute Franchise and Finding the Right Action Hero

Every action flick needs a good action hero. There needs to be someone to guide the audience through the chaos and mayhem they are about to witness. The action hero must have some action hero qualities. They should be smart or resourceful. They should be strong, but maybe not as strong as their foe. If they are not strong, they should be disciplined or have some other trait to give them an advantage. More important than any personality trait, though… An action hero must be played by the right actor to really bring everything together.

I have seen a few action movies in my day. Some have done a better job than others in the casting department. They nail that lead actor on the first try, solidifying a franchise for a decade or more. Bruce Willis in Die Hard. Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones. Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible. Franchises where you couldn’t imagine anyone but that specific actor in the lead role. Other franchises have taken a little longer to find the right actor to lead them into the promised land.

There are two main franchises that come to mind when I think of finding the right star outside the first movie. I’ll get to the franchise that inspired this post in a minute. First, I want to touch upon The Marine. We all think of John Cena as this big movie star. He has been acting since his days rising through the ranks in WWE. The 2000s were when WWE really branched into the film business, and they wanted the face of their television franchise on the big screen. However, he hadn’t honed his acting craft yet. He wasn’t good in The Marine. Ted DiBiase was even worse in the sequel. WWE eventually hit gold with The Marine 3: Homefront, when The Miz took on the lead role. He was more compelling. He took over the movie in a way that the other wrestlers hadn’t with their starring roles. This isn’t to say John Cena is a bad actor. At that time, however, he wasn’t ready for the role he had.

The Miz stuck around for four films. They varied in quality. His second outing wasn’t great. His third outing, The Marine 5: Battleground, was the best in the franchise. Whatever the case, he was a steadying presence in The Marine movies. The franchise probably wouldn’t have survived beyond the third film if he hadn’t been brought in. They found the right action hero for the series after the first two films missed.

A franchise that did it a little quicker, but still not on the first try, was The Substitute. Tom Berenger starred in the first film as a marine who took a substitute job at a gang-filled high school to find out who attacked his teacher girlfriend. It was an action movie of that 80s and 90s subgenre where a teacher or other authority figure in a school cleaned up the problems to make for a better learning experience. Stuff like The Principal, Only the Strong, and Lean on Me. Only, this had the same sort of vibes as Sniper. It was that mid-90s Tom Berenger influence.

The Tom Berenger influence was also what made The Substitute fall a little flat. It wasn’t so much the vibes that were wrong through most of The Substitute. One of the sequels had a vibes issue, but not the original. It was Tom Berenger, himself. He had the physique to pull off being a marine. However, he never felt like a teacher. Maybe because the character wasn’t a teacher. He pretended to be a teacher for the sake of undercover work. The problem was that Tom Berenger didn’t give off any teacher aura. The actor felt like he would never put himself in the position to be a teacher of anything. That made his character’s playing a teacher feel two layers wrong.

The other issue was that Tom Berenger’s action performance wasn’t good. He did a good job with reactions. There was a one-liner near the end of The Substitute that was perfectly delivered. I could believe it coming out of his mouth. His physical work, though… That didn’t work. Part of that was the editing, part of that was Tom Berenger’s movements. This was supposed to be a physically fit guy, fresh out of the military, doing some unsanctioned undercover work. Yet it felt like I was watching an out-of-shape 50-year-old trying, and failing, to throw solid punches.

When the sequel was in production, Tom Berenger declined to return. Thus, the production was moved to HBO with a new star. Treat Williams took over the franchise as a new character going through almost the same exact situation. He was an ex-soldier whose teacher brother was murdered by a carjacker. To figure out who did it, he became a substitute teacher at the gang-filled high school his brother taught at. That’s essentially an identical plot, only with a murdered brother instead of an injured girlfriend.

The recasting of The Substitute 2: School’s Out cleaned up the issues that Tom Berenger had in his outing. Treat Williams was believable as both a military man and a teacher. His performance as Karl Thomasson didn’t have that same dissociation with teaching that Tom Berenger’s performance as Jonathan Shale had. It felt like Thomasson wanted to teach the students, not that he fell into it. He wanted to help them in their futures rather than just clean the school of the gang problem.

Treat Williams was also a better physical performer than Tom Berenger. He looked like he was swinging and landing hits. He looked like he knew some martial arts, which really helped the action scenes. He also looked like he could take a few lumps. The Substitute 2: School’s Out didn’t feel like it had a man in his 50s who couldn’t fight. The action felt realer. That came from the performance as much as the editing.

Karl Thomasson would be the main character for the remainder of the franchise, The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All and The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option. His performances would be as solid through those two films as well. The third had a tonal issue from a new director coming in and trying to inject more comedy into the franchise. Karl took on a steroid scandal in a college football team that involved a comedic group of New York mafia characters. That didn’t work. That wasn’t on Treat Williams, who was still solid through that movie. The fourth got back into what made the second work so well, though, and it really solidified that Treat Williams was the right actor to lead the franchise. It’s a shame that it couldn’t continue beyond The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option, a quite solid movie about Karl taking down a racist military unit within a military school.

Treat Williams was one of those occasions where an action franchise found the right star after the first movie. Tom Berenger might be a good lead in some situations. His acting skills perfectly fit the Sniper franchise. Not so much with The Substitute. Swap him out for Treat Williams in the sequel and something special happened.

The Miz was the same case for The Marine. John Cena hadn’t built up his acting skill to pull the lead role off in The Marine. Ted DiBiase Jr. had whatever the opposite of screen charisma was in The Marine 2. When The Miz was brought in for The Marine 3: Homefront, things changed for the better. His natural charisma and his desire to be a professional at his craft helped drive him to excel in his role. It took three movies for the franchise to find the right actor to carry the movies.

Not all action franchises start with the right actor in the lead role. They could be lacking the talent to take on that kind of role. Their skills could be in different areas. One-liners, but not the physical stuff. A threatening presence, but nothing behind it. A change might need to be made to find someone to push the franchise forward. It’s either that or have no franchise. Where would the fun be in that? You always get some crazy stuff as a franchise grows longer and longer. We wouldn’t have that in The Substitute or The Marine without the change in lead actors. If the change works, it works. I’m all for it. If it finds a franchise the perfect action hero, it’s well worth it.

Now it’s time for some notes:

• I brought up The Marine franchise a couple times in this post. I might as well link to all of them. The Marine. The Marine 2. The Marine 3: Homefront. The Marine 4: Moving Target. The Marine 5: Battleground. The Marine 6: Close Quarters.
• I also want to link to all the Sniper movies I’ve covered. Sniper. Sniper 2. Sniper 3. Sniper: Reloaded.
• Another movie I mentioned in this post was Only the Strong.
• The star of The Substitute was Tom Berenger. He has shown up in a few Sunday “Bad” Movies. He was in Sniper, Sniper 2, and Sniper 3.
• Treat Williams was the star of The Substitute 2: School’s Out, The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All, and The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option.
• Robert Radler directed The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All and The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option.
• Robert Harvey was in The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All. He’s been a mainstay in Sunday “Bad” Movies, being featured in five other movies. He was in Jack and Jill, Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star, Sandy Wexler, Amityville: A New Generation, and Ringmaster.
• The newest member of the Sunday “Bad” Movies five timers’ club is Ernie Hudson. He appeared in The Substitute after appearing in Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva La Fiesta!, God’s Not Dead 2, and Battledogs.
• Luis Guzmán reappeared in Sunday “Bad” Movies with The Substitute. He was also in Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Sandy Wexler, and The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
• William Forsythe was another supporting actor in The Substitute. He was in Sunday “Bad” Movies in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Stone Cold, and God’s Not Dead: We the People.
• One of the villains in The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option was played by Simon Rhee, who was in Alex Cross, Kung Pow: Enter the First, and 3 Musketeers.
• Glenn Plummer was in The Substitute and was, apparently, an extra in The Substitute 2: School’s Out. He was a major part of Showgirls and Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven.
• The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All featured George Fisher, who was in Jingle All the Way and Gotcha!
• A surprise in The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All was Claudia Christian, who showed up in Never on Tuesday and Maniac Cop 2.
• Money Train featured three actors from The Substitute franchise. Vincent Laresca was in The Substitute, Lawrence Gilliard Jr. was in The Substitute 2: School’s Out, and Bill Nunn was in The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option.
• The Substitute and Drop Zone both featured Steve DuMouchel.
• Kurt James Stefka was in both The Substitute and Road House.
• David Hayes returned to Sunday “Bad” Movies in The Substitute after appearing in Hell Comes to Frogtown.
• Rodney A. Grant appeared in Wild Wild West and The Substitute.
• Cop and a Half and The Substitute both had an actor, the same actor, named Mike Benitez.
• You probably didn’t recognize Bryan Friday or his cool name in The Substitute. You also probably didn’t know he was in Abduction. But he was in both.
• Robert Rusler had roles in both Amityville: A New Generation and The Substitute.
• Now moving onto the sequel, The Substitute 2: School’s Out featured Eugene Byrd, who was in Anacondas: Hunt for the Blood Orchid.
• Owen Stadele returned to Sunday “Bad” Movies in The Substitute 2: School’s Out. He was first in Airborne.
• There was a surprising actor return from Elves. D.L. Walker appeared in that Christmas classic, as well as The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All.
• James Black was in Godzilla and The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All.
• Alvin and the Chipmunks featured Erin Chambers, who was in The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All.
• The last actor from The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All who was a returning Sunday “Bad” Movies feature was Rebecca Staab from the 1994 version of The Fantastic Four.
• Now we’re onto the final movie of the franchise, The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option. Patrick Kilpatrick played the villain. He was also in The Toxic Avenger.
• Tim Abell had roles in both Mega Shark vs. Kolossus and The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option.
• Finally, The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option featured J. Don Ferguson, who was in Maximum Overdrive.
• Have you seen any of The Substitute movies? What did you think? Share your thoughts in the comments, or let me know on Bluesky or Threads.
• If there’s a movie you think I should check out for Sunday “Bad” Movies, drop the title in the comments. Or hit me up on Bluesky or Threads and let me know there.
• Coming up next, I don’t know yet. It’ll be something Christmas themed. I know that much. I just have to decide what movie I want to watch and write about. After the holidays, there will be a post about As Gouda As It Gets. But that’s for after the holidays. We’re getting into December, and I need to check out at least one holiday movie for the blog. I’ll see you whenever I write that post.