A Pickleball Christmas

[00:00:03] This is a Bramble Jam Podcast Hi, I'm Bran and I love Pickleball Christmas movies I'm Dan, I'm sorry, I don't believe you I'm Dan, I despise Pickleball Christmas movies I'm Alonzo and needs more vinegar And this is Deck The Hallmark Podcast Deck The Hallmark, it's his podcast Wowzers

[00:00:33] We then and friends host his podcast We hope you like this jolly podcast Hey, hello everybody Merry Christmas to you Yeah, nothing more festive than a little Pickleball You know what I mean? Yeah Nothing says the holidays You like Dinkin' I love Pickleball

[00:01:01] I stopped playing because my knee would swell up like a softball And I would love to like continue to be healthy I stopped playing two, three years ago Maybe now that I'm a little healthier I need to give another shot I used to be addicted Like I used to go out and play Addicted Addicted even We'd get out there at 7.30 at night and play till they turn the park lights off Like it was a problem Yeah, but in Greenville that's at 8 o'clock No, it's 11 But it would be Yeah, we'd have had to get out of there a lot earlier I just like I do love Pickleball And I love Christmas So this movie really was

[00:01:30] It's like, you know I did a report on Oppenheimer And then Nolan I love Nolan And he made Oppenheimer So like There you go This is the Oppenheimer of TV Christmas That's what I'm trying to say Alonzo, what's your experience with Pickleball? The phenomenon that is You know, actually this movie kind of explained to me what Pickleball does and how it works Because I've never played it Oh no Oh no My only exposure to Pickleball up until now has been that episode of Hacks Oh yeah

[00:01:58] And then this season he goes back to try to cancel the membership, which is really funny Yes Great scene there That whole thing, yeah But yeah, I knew it was a phenomenon I think some of my siblings are into it But I just And I knew it was played on a tennis court with a different racket But that was all I knew about Pickleball Now I think I knew a little bit more You know a little bit more You've played a handful of times I've played a handful It's fun to play Fun It's fast-paced We should do a Bram We're doing a Bramble Fest golf tournament this year Yeah, maybe

[00:02:27] Maybe once the Pickleball fad fully dies out Then we'll do a Bramble Fest Then we'll do it That's when we really I love it But it seems like ping pong played it like full size Yeah, it is I played tennis all through my high school years And even a little bit after that But it is very much like competitive ping pong More than it is like small tennis It's much more like ping pong than tennis in my opinion But maybe that's just me Yeah, but just

[00:02:57] You know, we were watching this movie on Thursday morning Yeah And I was like I wonder when the next big pickleball game is On the National Pickleball League It was right then It was 11 a.m. on a Thursday They just get going And it's broadcasted live for all to see Yeah, so we watched a little bit of that To juxtapose I watched a little professional pickleball Oh, actual pickleball Yeah Okay Yeah The professionals This movie Was this on the Ocho? Like where do you see Professional pickleball?

[00:03:25] It was on the NPL website They were streaming To everyone in this movie I'm better than a pickleball Without question Like easily Oh, BJ Harrison could take you I bet Uh-huh I don't think so Well, let's talk about it, shall we? Let's do it Pickleball Christmas Originally actually aired on the Lifetime channel Uh, they were really close to Christmas December 20th Wow 2025 They wanted to hold this Christmas feast Yeah, this was the big show Uh Yeah, they really wanted to

[00:03:53] Give you all the Christmas feels Week of Uh, yeah And it went a little something like this Uh, we meet pro tennis player Luke Hollis He's an angry boy Uh, but He wins A big tournament And he thinks that Winning this big tournament Is the perfect win to go out on And he quits And he's gonna move back to Florida And his agent can't stop him Darn it We then meet Caroline She works at The Reedy What is it? The racket club

[00:04:23] The racket club It's the something Sandy Hills Sandy Hills Racket Club Spelled R-A-C-Q-U-E-T Because they're fancy Yes Requits Uh, they've recently converted The Many of the courts To pickleball In order to You know, capitalize on the trend That is pickleball Will it be enough To save the club by Christmas? Because if not It's Gonzo They're gonna build condos That's right Yeah Uh, Luke gets home for Christmas His dad

[00:04:52] The owner of said racket club Um, is, you know Excited to see him Luke pitches to him Letting him take over the club Renaming it The Luke Hollis Champion Center Center Not Center Where they will Champion Center That's me and you Amen That's right Chief of Centers Where they will Uh, train The next generation Of champion Tennis players They tell him the bad news Uh, they're probably gonna lose The center

[00:05:22] So, there's no No point in Changing the name He gets down to the club And the news goes From bad to worse His, all of his His favorite court Has been changed Into a pickleball court Kind of His favorite court You know, it's a temporary There's still plenty of Tennis courts out there Yes, but you know This one He liked it Uh, when he finds out That the Christmas Day Pickleball tournament Might be the club's Last chance to save it He tries to figure out

[00:05:51] How to help He finds a partner To broadcast the tournament Uh, the problem though Is that the money That the partner Is going to pay Is not gonna go to The club itself Rather to the winner Of the tournament The prize money though Coincidentally Is enough to save it Save the club So Luke decides The only thing That he can do Is to compete But It's doubles This is a doubles tournament Folks So Caroline agrees To help him

[00:06:21] Caroline's the best They got Let's compete Let's do this thing Together Trains him up And uh, there's a There is a Training montage Next thing you know They're hooking up In the shed So, you know Escalated quickly At the club Holiday party Caroline and Luke Go together And his parents Make an announcement Naming Luke The next club owner If The lights are on Next week Somehow

[00:06:51] Caroline Overhears a conversation And gets the idea That Luke is Planning on Getting rid of Everything that she's Helped grow In this Racket club She's very frustrated She leaves the party Without even taking The Christmas gift That he got her With her And then is going To avoid him Until the Christmas Day tournament He realizes that Something is up And just says Hey, let's just Lock in Okay? Let's focus They start playing well But she can't do it anymore

[00:07:20] And during the championship She tries to Throw the match Luke tells her Pause! Let's go to the shed Our favorite shed You know the one The shed There's been a misunderstanding You didn't open up Your gifts Oh no That's because You never got it Your gift explains Everything Which is like I want you to Like we're gonna run This Isn't that true About Christmas? Amen We're gonna run this Together We got matching shirts Pickleballs the future Let's do this thing Yay So they go out there

[00:07:49] And they Win The tournament Cut to one year later The club is thriving Luke's sister Comes in to get Caroline Caroline Caroline Caroline Who Saying Hey Luke's hurt He fell down He's hurt It's a classic Fake injury Proposal Everybody And the ring Is in a pickleball And that my friends Was A pickleball Christmas It's a pickleball Christmas A pickleball

[00:08:19] Christmas One One of many Pickleball Christmas One of the many Pickleball Christmases Exactly We did it Let's take a break We'll come back We'll break this movie Down with four Segments here on Deck the Hallmark Everybody Welcome back It's time to talk About a pickleball Christmas Let's share our Thoughts on this one We're gonna start With a hot take Today

[00:08:48] And I'm gonna start With you Alonzo Alonzo Did this inspire you To get out there And Look I have Never Wanted to do A sport With a ball Like When my When my parents Would make me Do sports In school Like I ran I swam But I never Did anything That was like That involved me Interacting with a team Or

[00:09:17] Handling a ball Of any kind Because I know My limitations So no It did not Inspire me You know It's funny This film Came up in the news This week Because Some Canadian organization That honors Movies like this It nominated it For casting And I have to say There is a deep Bench of people We've seen In these movies In this movie Enjoyed that Aspect of it It is directed

[00:09:47] By Monica Mitchell Who did One of my Favorite Goofy Comfort Viewings Christmas Joy Wow Christmas Cookie Crawl Yeah She also Did When Christmas Was Young Which we've Reviewed She did Episodes Of the Chicken Sisters Like she is She's a Vet of this Sort of thing But boy Howdy The script Here we go The script The script The script Is You know Starting with A pickleball Tournament Happening on Christmas

[00:10:17] Day Yep It just Goes It just Spreads out From there The nonsense And inanity Of this The stuff That makes No sense The plot Contrivances That could be Solved with One ten Second conversation But instead Drag out For two Acts Yeah It I found That kind Of exasperating But I Enjoyed Seeing a lot Of familiar Faces And Even though You know A Florida Christmas movie Is kind of Cheating Because you Have to do The fake Snow

[00:10:47] The pickleball Gives it I guess Sort of a Unique You know Flavor By the way Racket is Always spelled With a CQ When it's The sports Kind Yeah But it Shouldn't Be So if I Google Tennis It means You're like Making noise No Brandon Brandon Said I can't believe They spelled It that way I was like Brandon There's a Greenville Racket Club I just Thought it Was The The bougie No That's That's how You spell Tennis Yeah

[00:11:17] But if You So yes Alonzo Is right A racket R-A-C-K-E-T Is like Stop making A racket Over there That doesn't Stop If you were To google It Right Or something If you googled Tennis racket They would still Show you a bunch Of rackets And down Here I would Say in My head It could go You could spell Either way But Alonzo Is correct Yeah All of these Do say Like well This one Target has A tennis racket For sale

[00:11:46] R-A-C-K-E-T It's never A tennis racket Is when Brand yells At the Lineman For a Bad call That's right Are you Kidding me It's a racket Yeah So this Movie Has been on My radar For a while Because I Have a list Of movies That came out In 2025 And I kept And it's called A pickleball Typically We don't do The Lifetime Movies Because we do The Lifetime Movies With Patrick And we Didn't get To this One

[00:12:15] And but By the way Patrick's Going to be Returning Very soon And more Regularly Once the Way home Is done And frees up Another day Of the week Which is Going to be Wonderful But I Just Couldn't Stop I kept Looking at This movie And I said I just Have to see It We gotta Know I have to See it And Now we know This is what I'll say About Not a bad Idea No But it Didn't have To be Christmas First of All

[00:12:45] Not at All Yeah The Christmas Of it All Was Underwhelming They did The best They could Down there In Florida With it And the Party Looked Nice I guess But you Know It was Go ahead This This year We'll get A La Boo Boo Dubai Chocolate Christmas Yes But Yeah I just I It's It is For as Clever Of an idea Which I Think it is Like this Idea of This guy Is a

[00:13:15] Tennis Player Frustrated By the Rise of Pickleball And ultimately Pickleball Is the Thing that He has To learn In order To save The family Club That taught Him The sport That he Loves You're Not Wrong That's A Nice Fun Idea Fun Idea But also Andre Years A Great Pickleball Like It is An Adaptation That has Actually Happened Before In real Life Yeah So it Is a Great Idea You're 100% Right But yeah It is

[00:13:45] It's It's Just Kind of Like a Frustrating Movie Lack Of Christmas Lack Of Good Conversations Lack Of Cohesion So yeah But you Know what We did It And we Can Cross It Off The List And so Now my Eyes will No longer Be drawn To pickleball Christmas When I'm Looking at My list Patrick You're Welcome Yeah For what It's Worth Everybody Patrick Hated This Movie I Looked At Lifetime On Cork Was Not A Fan So Saved Him From

[00:14:27] Sex Scene In This Movie Which I Know It's Lifetime Still Caught Both Of Us Off Guard That That Happened In This Movie With A Wild Ending To That Scene Which We Will Get To And I Don't Know How We're Going To Cover It

[00:14:57] A Boatload Of Wait What's The Movie Doesn't Hold Together Under Any Scrutiny At All From The Family That Owns This Place To The Professional Tennis Player Who Can I Can Only Imagine Is In Tens Of Millions Of Dollars Of Debt To The The Construct Of The Tournament That Involves Amateurs To The Misunderstanding Which Is I Don't Understand I Have Misunderstood The Misunderstanding So None Of It Works

[00:15:26] Is It A Good Idea With Maddie Finocchio Is In This Movie Is Great Is It A Good Idea With People That I Think Can Do This Movie Yes Is A Good Movie Heck No It's A Really Bad Movie But One I Will Remember One I Will Remember And I'm Sure We'll Talk About It And It'll Probably Make A Reels On The Social As Well A Bad Misunderstanding That Also Went On Forever And Then She Acts Like It Isn't One For A

[00:15:56] While Which Is Crazy Like If Long Enough To Get To The It's We'll Get To It We'll Get To It It It's Crazy Let's Get To The Fields We'll Start With You Alonzo A Couple Things First Of All This Is

[00:16:26] This Is Rare In Film And Television In General It Is Exceedingly Rare In The Made For TV Christmas Movie They Mentioned COVID Oh They Did You Never See That What Did They Say Why The Racquet Club Is Falling On Hard Times He Says We Never Bounced Back From COVID There You Go Wow And I Just I Just Really Good When We Acknowledge It Because So Often We Just There's So Much Such A Desire To Pretend It Never

[00:16:55] Happened That It Didn't Affect Us At All So I'm Always You I Appreciated That I Thought It Was Funny Um And The Whole Thing Where He Is Taunting Matty Finocchio About His Smell I Thought Was Such A Funny Kind Of Like

[00:17:27] Jock Psych Out Move To Do On Someone Who Is Insecure No I Don't Shut Up I I the shed later. Boy, will we. But a couple of big ones and the big one kisses in this movie. Multiple lifts! Multiple lifts! You don't see that very often. A significant shed lift.

[00:17:56] A shed lift, a lift onto car. Don't see a lot of lifts in a hallmark. Legs around the hips lift. Don't see those type of lifts on the hallmark. And also, I was reminded while we started this movie, this is a Studio TF1 America joint. Do you know the story about Studio TF1 America, Alonzo? Tell me. Studio TF1 America is the merging of two

[00:18:26] companies that make these type of movies. Real One and our friends over at Johnson. Johnson Production. They merged together and they said, what's the most confusing name we can give people? It's Studio TF1 America. They were going to go with Real Big Johnson. I mean, it's right there! It's right there! And they went with Studio TF1 America. They got tired of us calling it a Big Johnson joint. But this is still a Big Johnson joint because Johnson's the one running the company. So we can still,

[00:18:56] it's still alive and well. Yes, of course. I hadn't, as far as I know, I hadn't seen a Studio TF1 America joint since the merger. And so when I saw it on the screen, it reminded me of this weird merging of two. It's literally... Powerhouses. Yeah. It's a thing that... Canadian TV film powerhouses. Only us in this room remotely care about it. I think that's fun. I think that's fun. Dana? This is going to sound like a dig and it is not a dig.

[00:19:26] This is a real... All the feels for me. They have this pickleball tournament on Christmas Day and they talk it up like it's a very big thing. And if you were an amateur that got to play against a professional tennis player, it would be a big thing. I say all that to say, on the day of the tournament, there are an impressive number of extras that they got to come out for this movie. Like, there are not 12 people watching pickleball. There are... It looked like at one point there were triple digits number of extras. I don't know how they did it,

[00:19:56] but the scene where all of the extras flood in to the tennis court, I couldn't believe it. I'm so used to watching these movies and going, we're here at the big game with red versus blue and there's 12 people in the stands that I was so caught off guard with. They got a really good number of people to come in here to make this thing look legit. And I was very, very impressed by that. It was the thing that made the most sense of this movie. Maybe more people than would show up on Christmas Day. Yeah.

[00:20:25] Unfortunately, they went too hard. Yeah. It was the one time we didn't need that. That's the magic of Real Big Johnson. That's right. They know how to do it. All right. Let's take a break. We'll come back. We'll get to the way we want and the what the homework here on. Take the homework. Hi, everybody. Welcome back. We're talking about a pickleball Christmas. Yeah, we are. One of many. One of many. These happen all the time.

[00:20:55] These Christmas Day pickleball tournaments happen all the time. Not the pickleball Christmas. Hey. Let's get to the wait what. So we're talking about what in this movie Miniscoy. What? I'll start with you, Alonzo. Yeah. I was going to mention this toward the end, but I'm going to piggyback on what Dan was just saying about the impressive number of extras at the pickleball tournament. There are a lot of people watching the pickleball tournament. What there are not at the pickleball tournament are TV cameras. That's right. That's right. This is a televised event, and there is not a camera in sight.

[00:21:25] I did see one, Alonzo. I saw one, but not in a good place. It was on the corner of the court, which wouldn't get in and low. It was not raised up, so it would not be a good angle, but I did see one singular camera. To both of your points, the announcing crew is at floor level behind the court. They can't see anything. Like you would have them up in a tower somewhere to see. Yeah, they'd be up in the press box. That's right.

[00:21:54] Nor are there chairs, though. No. There's no bleachers. There's nothing. This is standing room only. It's like a municipal park. They could get hit in the head with a stray ball. Absolutely. And that's the thrill of it. On Christmas Day? This is true. They're not even wearing helmets. Winding back to the beginning, this guy is, we are meant to understand, a pro tennis player on the global scale who plays in a t-shirt. Yeah, he does. Absolutely. T-shirt guy. I beg the filmmakers to watch

[00:22:23] any tennis on television ever and tell me where that happens. Find me a crew neck out there. I get that this guy has been a globetrotter and has not been, you know, hanging around at home, but the communication issues in this family are... Are colossal. But this guy breezes home with plans to like convert the family racket club into this champion center and has no idea that they have a GoFundMe, that they're struggling, that they're going to be losing the thing.

[00:22:53] It just seems like bananas. Also, it's like, if you're an internationally famous globetrotting tennis player, even if you're broke, which the movie does go out of their way to be like, you sank your money into NFTs and that's... You can't just fund this out of his pocket. But he's famous enough that if you had a GoFundMe happening in your family, you would tell him so that he could put it on his Instagram. 100%. Like, I... He... I'll get to more...

[00:23:21] Like, I would love to break open his financials to... I get the NFT thing, but if you win a major championship in tennis, the minimum that you take home is like $4 million. And that's for one. That's just like not considering any place that you get in any of the other ones. And you have sponsors and backers. That's right. Yeah. Sponsors who would make the actual collared tennis shirts that you would be wearing on the court for one thing. But, you know, your raquettes and your other equipment

[00:23:51] would also like have logos all over it. Okay. So, the meet cute hate at first sight, why is he mad at her? It's so stupid. He's so mad at her. I'm like, over what exactly? Like, they don't... They don't spell out the... Pickle ball! I guess, but I mean, it's just... Gosh, Alonzo, it's pickleball! It is.

[00:24:19] It seems inordinate to the level of fury that he has toward this woman who he's literally just meeting. So, the next morning when he is once again woken up by dad because, you know, the exercise bike is in his old room, he goes downstairs. The mom pours him a cup of coffee. That is clear water coming out of that teapot. You don't want that coffee. Or serving him coffee in. So, it's like,

[00:24:49] it is not just decaf, it's de-everything. It's de-coff. It might be just, this is just the thing in the room that's so obvious why bother mentioning it, but it's just for the record, a pickleball tournament on Christmas Day is ridiculous. We have to mention it. You would never. You would never. I mean, yeah. And even, even on the level of these movies of like big business decisions or television things happen, whatever, on Christmas Day, like getting people

[00:25:18] to show for a pickleball tournament and then getting somebody else to cover that pickleball tournament is crazy. The only thing I've seen worse than this is the, didn't someone have an audition on Christmas Day once? Like an audition, an audition for a play or movie or TV, that is the only, that I'm like, there's just no world where you would do this on Christmas. But that's maybe the only thing I can think of worse than this. So, okay. Which then now brings us to the TV aspect of it. So, okay. First of all,

[00:25:46] the network won't pay the club for the rights to air this event. They'll only pay the winners of the tournament? It's crazy. Mind boggling. Like imagine if ESPN was paying not, like not, they were paying just the people that won the tournament. I don't understand. That's not how that works. We'll pay the team that wins the Super Bowl, but we're not giving the NFL a dime. I don't, that's not how that works.

[00:26:15] You would never get that. That's not, you just can't do that. There's a pickleball league. There's a, like, rules about this stuff. If, if, if, you know, this is a last minute thing, right? So, assuming this was the only offer, right? It's not like they could go to a bidding war, like. No, no. I mean, I get why they feel forced to say yes, but just the idea that this offered to be made in the first place is ridiculous. Crazy. But then, but then we build on that by being, okay, well, it's fine. I'll just compete then. That's right. Yeah.

[00:26:45] The guy who arranged to have this tournament televised who owns the club where it's taking place and the woman who is the head instructor at that club are going to enter as a team and no one is going to think that's a conflict of interest. No way. Yeah. It isn't. It was, I did find it weird when Will, the person throwing the event, playing the event, popped up on Cal sheet, but now it makes sense. It's insider trading. That's right. It all makes sense. It's crazy.

[00:27:15] Anything else, Alonzo? I said, this is one of the most to have the conversation already movies that is also the, open the damn present already. Yes. I was frustrated with her during, when she decided she's going to throw the match, like this place means something to her too. Yes. Like even if you're mad at him, this family has taken you in that said you are

[00:27:44] part of our family. You're 100% right. Like, but she also, this misunderstanding starts because she is overhearing two people talking that are not the lead guy. Yeah. That don't know that are talking out of their ass, but she thinks that they're the gospel truth. That's right. So she gathers from two people based on hearsay that aren't, it's like, it's like a game of telephone, like third hand. Well, honestly, she belongs in this family then like the communication also decides

[00:28:13] third hand that he's going to like dismantle all she's worked for. And instead of mentioning it to him, like this isn't a situation where he said something and she just happened to hear the wrong part of it. He did nothing right. Like he can't get in trouble for this. This is like, this is like he has done nothing wrong. Usually I'm like, dude, come to your senses in this one. This is not on him. He is not even involved. Like she got this third hand and then decides the best way to handle it is to act

[00:28:43] like we're cool and then wait when all of these matches and then in the championship just decide to just throw it. Take down the entire family. So crazy. This is Rosemary Clooney in White Christmas getting mad at Bing Crosby because of something that Mary Wicks misunderstood on the phone. Yeah, it's exactly and the two movies are a very similar quality. You know what I mean? Otherwise, it's mutual. I'm sure a couple more are nice.

[00:29:12] I love that Matty Finocchio, who's a tennis pro, stealthily enters this pickleball tournament that nobody knows under the name of his cousin. The cousin, however, is a three-time pickleball champion. That's right. So that would already have attracted attention but that just skates right by everybody's notice. He's still and Matty Finocchio is so, he's wasted in this movie. He does not get any, he didn't get what he needs out of it. Like he's so good. Not nearly. And then finally, I had to share, this is an exchange between the

[00:29:42] commentators when the two of them are watching the final match and like, you know, our leads are way, way behind. The dude says, can they bring it back? And the woman says, the question is, can they? Here's what I haven't written down. That is the question and I just asked. Can they bring it back? The question is, can they? What's funny is like, they didn't, they didn't do enough silliness

[00:30:11] with those two for that to clearly be a bit. Like I'm not, I'm not sure if it's a bit or if it's just really bad dialogue. It's both. It's meant to be a joke. I think so. I think so. It's not like they gave us these two as what Trish and Cord or whatever. Right, right, right. When Will Ferrell would go cover the Rose Parade with, with, with, what's her name? Molly Shannon. There it is. yes, yes, yes. 100%. That's, yeah, I'm going to let y'all deal with the shed. Okay,

[00:30:42] I will get to the shed. First, I do want to say she's, he calls up his agent and is like, I'm donezo, blah, blah, blah. And she tells him, hey, I got to go. I just had another client who just discovered Twitter. Got to put out that fire. Okay. So, she says, I have another client who just discovered Twitter. So, help me. help me. So, clearly, someone signed up for Twitter and is tweeting bad things,

[00:31:12] right? But, so, that's happened, but then, so now I'm like clocking. I wonder what year this is supposed to be. That's right. Because it's not a thing anymore. Twitter's over. Guys, it's done. We can just discover it. But then they bring up NFTs, which, big rise, big boom, late 21. Yeah. Twitter turned to X in early 23. So, I guess this movie is in 2022. But like, we're really, we're people, famous athletes

[00:31:42] and whatnot, signing up for Twitter in 2022 and just blasting. I don't know. No. It was such a weird, it felt weird and outdated. But then to bring up NFTs, it was weird. It was like, Hallmark did the gluten-free thing for 10 years too long. This is more dated than that. The idea that a young athlete is just discovering Twitter in the mid-2020s and getting into trouble is just absurd.

[00:32:11] Like, what are you talking about? Very funny. Get out of here. I do want to just say, discover MySpace and his top eight's a mess. Yes. This is a Christmas. Call Jack. This is a Christmas Day tournament. It's called Dink the Halls. The banner, very underwhelming when it comes to it. It is different shades of blue. There's not a tree Christmas, like nothing. Just a very missed opportunity there. She's telling him a bit about

[00:32:41] her journey and she says, I went on a mental health walk and I just call that a walk. Like, I don't think especially when you say five days ago afterwards. Are there specific walks that are own that these ones really are good for my body and my cardiovascular system? Later, I'll do one for my mental health. Yeah, I consider all walks good for the mental health. Typically, those go hand in hand. You could have said I went for a walk. What's your motivation for the walk? Sometimes I go on a walk

[00:33:10] and smoke a cigarette because I don't want it to be good for my body. I just want to be good for my mental health. That's right.

[00:33:44] Yes. normally bargain for in these movies. We may be in for something here. And then we do. Okay, so there is the lift. There's a lift. There's a lift. There's some pretty heavy stuff going on for a movie like this. Yes. But then the scene ends with an exterior shot of the shed, which would have been enough. The door is slightly cracked. Yes, but we would say, okay, that's not for us to see. Clearly, there's something going on. But how do

[00:34:14] they show you what we think is going on in there did in fact go on in their brand? A bunch of tennis balls come flying out of the doorway very quickly as if to show you something's happening. Guys, there's only one way to say this. Someone got behind that door and jizzed out tennis balls.

[00:34:43] I don't know what you want from me. Those tennis balls don't come out like all willy nilly. They come out at about waist level in a straight arc rapid fire. It is the weirdest thing I've ever seen in one of these movies. It is crazy. And this was a choice. There was a meeting about this. There was, hey, I have an idea. What if to show that they are going for

[00:35:13] it in the shed, we demonstrate it, we show it through the way that tennis balls shoot up. We could cut to a train going in a tunnel or something. Let's keep it tennis. Let's keep it racquetball. Okay, Jerry, I like this idea, but how are we going to do it? We have to come up with some sort of mechanism that will shoot out the tennis balls like this. I'm on the case, John. Give me, how much money do I have? I will create some sort of machine.

[00:35:43] It is like a big shot of tennis balls and then two smaller shots of tennis. It is really, really graphic. Guys, go watch the movie. I'm not making this up. Maybe it's like one of those automatic ball servers they use for lessons and they just leaned on the button. I used to hit on those in high school and those don't do that. They don't do what this movie did. not for you, Dave. I couldn't believe it. It's one of the weirdest things. Brandon and I were sitting in there. I was like,

[00:36:13] did that just happen? Did that just happen right there? Did they show us what was going on in there through that? That was wild. It was crazy. Wild thing. Are we to believe that that bowl is the trophy he just won at the beginning of this movie? It is the most embarrassing trophy. We are to believe it. He caresses it several times. They get some random bowl. I know that a lot of trophies are made out of fine kitchenware, I guess. There's these

[00:36:43] things in the cup or the whatever. This looks like someone had a bowl in their garage. They put it on a table for him. It's pretty brutal. I do want to point out that the plan of making the racket club into a champion center is a good plan. If you need to make money, to Alonzo's point, why not put the celebrity who his family happens to own the club, why not put his face on it to sell

[00:37:13] premium memberships? That is not an egotistical plan. That is an actual good plan. At one point, I'm pretty sure she gets very upset and she says she doesn't want the tournament turning into the Will Hollis show. He's trying to save his family's club and her place of business. If it takes turning it into the Will Hollis show to do that, then you should do it. I don't know why there's

[00:37:42] pushback there. I don't really understand that at all. At one point in this movie, our two leads play a mother-son team in pickleball on courts that are just not country club courts. They're pretty terrible courts. But after the mother and son lose, and Brian, you caught this. I can't believe you didn't bring it up. The son says to the mom, thanks a lot, mom. Now this court is haunted too. There's a line earlier

[00:38:12] on where they're going to play in this one court. We can't play in that one. It's haunted. We lost there. Now this court is haunted. Every court they lose on is haunted. Yes, because they win a lot. That is so stupid. Did you recognize the mom? She did look familiar. She's mean interior designer boss from December Bride. Wow. What a callback. Good find. There are two older

[00:38:41] women in this that are trying to make sure that the coach goes out with this tennis player and they're always pushing it. Then he shows up at the Christmas party and they say this line and I still like I'm trying they say oh my god he looks like Tom Selleck. No George Clooney. No Timothy Chalamet. Those three are identical. Which is first of all interesting three-way comp there but also he doesn't look like any of those guys at all.

[00:39:11] I don't like what was happening in that script? Maybe they both have cataracts and don't know it. I don't know. It's wild. What is this a New York Knicks game? Lastly Maddie Finocchio plays a guy named Toby Thick and Toby Thick shows up with his significant other who we see in a sports car. I don't know what's going on with his tennis ball. He is. They couldn't even air that. Toby Thick

[00:39:41] significant other girlfriend wife. I don't know. Something is his pickleball partner. Cousin. Cousin. She can't talk. She can't talk. She's not allowed to talk. She doesn't have a line. She is an extra. She's a background actor. She's been promoted to full-time player at background actor rate. It is one of the more egregious versions of this since the father of the bride walked this woman down the aisle and had to be an extra. I don't remember what movie that was.

[00:40:11] Since then, this poor woman has to give mean looks, has to give fist bumps, has to mean mug, can't talk. Can't talk. Real tough. Can't talk. My favorite non-talkers is still the competing trivia team. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's tough. That's real tough. Father of the bride's number one. No wonder they lose. Father of the bride is number one. That's a real tough one. That's a real tough one. He is in over his skis in a ginormous suit, walking our lead down

[00:40:41] the aisle and cannot say he loves her. It's a tough spot to be in. Love you, dad. You can't even sing once in a lifetime. Nothing. It's that's what the hallmark is for. We wonder what could have been maybe having a clarity question we still have. What are we still wondering about? I'll start with you, Alondo. You know, I think it's as lovely as the intention behind the gift is, real presumptuous to slap both of their names on this racket club, especially when we're a year away from an engagement. I find all of this to be

[00:41:10] a bit of an onslaught of the mixing of the personal and the professional. Yeah, I agree. He might regret at some point. I do want the announcers, the Whittiers, whatever their name is, the Whittiers. Well, first of all, are they brother or sister? Are they husband and wife? I don't know. Honestly, and I couldn't tell from their vibe to be clear. But they were very excited when they found out that they were coming to

[00:41:40] announce it. They weren't good at the announcing. What is their deal? What do they typically announce? Yeah, I don't know what they're supposed to be. They're random announcers for hire for pickleball turn. I don't know. I don't know what their deal is. Is this their big break? Yeah, I don't know. Dana? Yeah, I just need to know about his finances. Did he get MC hammered? How in the world did he lose? If you're a professional tennis player that's won

[00:42:10] grand slams, which he has, they've said it in this movie, if you make the cut, you make a minimum of around $100,000, and if you win it, you make $4 or $5 million. So if he, for the last 10 years of his life, has consistently been entering 30 tournaments a year, and he's won some and he's made the cut in many others, I just, like, how many NFTs did he buy? Yeah, exactly. This is not just, so we're talking hundreds of millions in winnings,

[00:42:39] not including sponsorships and commercials and ads. What happened where he is, and I get it, sometimes we don't educate athletes very well and we, like, there's a whole scandal of what happens to young NBA players and NFL players where they're mistreated and they're taken advantage of. I'm not here to get into that, that is not their fault. This guy has a sustained career of over a decade of a single, he's not on a team, right,

[00:43:09] of being a single tennis player. So he has been in charge of his own money. You don't see a lot of sob stories with golfers, right? It's not, you know, you don't have a contract to play golf. You just get what you get when you win it. And he's got parents who own their own business. Like, who would you think that's the advice in this regard? Kudos to them for giving lip service to he's broke. That solves why he can't take care of it. But also, how is he broke? Yeah. So, yeah, I just,

[00:43:39] that's where mine was. Well, we did it, everybody. We certainly did it. We're going to be back next week with another one. I believe we're going to do Tyler Perry's Finding Joy. That's right. I don't really know anything about it, but it's Tyler Perry's Finding Joy. That's right. Names on it. He claims it. So, we'll talk about it. going back for that next time. Until then, maybe the first to wish you a Merry Christmas! It's Deck the Hallmark's a Bramble Jam podcast produced by Brandon Gray and yeah, that Greenville,

[00:44:09] South Carolina. For more information on the show, go to deckthehallmark.com or follow us on the socials at Deck the Hallmark. You can leave us a rating and review. Five stars if you please on Apple Podcasts. Help others find the show and then head on over to the best corner of the internet. Ad-free podcasting, live video watch alongs, movie chats, Facebook groups, so much more. All that is at BrambleJamPlus.com. You're about to hear some ads that help keep the lights on here in the old studio.

[00:44:40] Thanks for listening or don't listen. It's really up to you at this point. It's at the end of the show. I mean, you're listening to me. Hi. But here they come. I promise they're coming. Yep, here they are. Happy day.