It’s Christmas time, meaning a slew of new movie releases have dropped for the holiday season. One of the latest yuletide offerings is the Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell musical-comedy Spirited, available to stream for anyone with an Apple TV+ subscription. Even though reviews for the flick have been somewhat mixed with critics (our own Mike Reyes thought it was a Christmas clunker), that hasn’t stopped fans from flocking to it. The movie has become Apple’s most streamed movie to date. Ryan Reynolds took to his social media with a special thank you to fans for making the movie a success, and, somehow appropriately, involves Nickelback.
Ryan Reynolds posted a thank you message from himself and the rest of the Spirited cast to his Instagram. In the video, Reynolds highlights one of the songs from the film, "Unredeemable." The actor points out the song is the turning point of the movie and is an “emotional anthem about whether humanity can overcome our mistakes.”
He then goes on to reveal a wonderfully meta music video (with a Green Lantern reference!) featuring a performance of the song by the band Nickelback. The Deadpool star reminds fans to be kind to each other this holiday season before signing off with an introduction to the Canadian rockers. You can check it out in all its glory, below.
Meta right? Ending with Nickelback’s lead singer Chad Kroeger holding up a photograph in an obvious nod to their 2005 song of the same name and the ever-persistent “Photograph” meme was a wonderful note to end the video on.
This isn’t the first time the actor has shared his love for the early 2000s alternative rock band in a funny way. When Deadpool 2 came out, an edited, toned-down version of the film was released in theaters with a framing device featuring the Merc with the Mouth holding Fred Savage hostage as he read him the movie ala The Princes Bride. There is an entire scene where the actor says hating the band doesn’t make you cool and even argues the merits of Nickelback. Ryan Reynolds clearly seems to have an affinity for the band. Perhaps it’s because they hail from his home country of Canada?
While AppleTV+ doesn’t give out exact viewing numbers, Deadline has reported the holiday film broke records for the streamer and is responsible for bringing in 27% new viewership. The company also highlighted the songs and said they could be Oscar contenders! Who knows, if the cast doesn’t sing "Unredeemable," it would be pretty poetic to see Nickelback perform the song at the Academy Awards.
Spirited stars Ryan Reynolds as a miserly man who treats everyone around him with terrible selfishness. He soon finds himself on a whimsical adventure into the three phases of time: past, present, and future. Sound familiar? It should be, because it’s the latest adaptation of A Christmas Carol.
Who knows, perhaps Spirited will supplant itself as a new holiday classic. It wouldn’t be the first time for a movie with mixed to bad reviews to do so. Roger Ebert gave the Bill Murray starring film Scrooged one-star, and in my house, it’s a Christmas must-watch. Perhaps twenty years from now, it won’t be strange to see your family listening to Nickelback’s version of "Unredeemable" as they put up the Christmas tree.
Spirited is available to stream now. CinemaBlend readers who are looking for other movies to stream this holiday season might be interested in our list of the best Christmas movies on Netflix. If you’re looking to plan your holiday movie-going experience this season, be sure to check our list of 2022 new movie releases.
