It's a story that takes an unconventional look at the family dynamic during the hectic Christmas season, with heart and humor to spare, and brilliant performances across the board.įor those deprived souls who have yet to watch The Ref - which I assume is most of you, although you have no excuse since it's been on Netflix for more than a year - here's what it's about.

He was starting to get his footing in the movie biz as well, with roles as the salty stepdad in The Sandlot and the brutal gangster in Judgment Night (another underrated 90s gem, by the way), but I was instantly enamored with The Ref, since it was then, and still is to this day, one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. For wannabe wise-asses like me, Denis Leary was a god in the 1990s from his numerous appearances on MTV and his hilarious 1992 Showtime stand-up special No Cure for Cancer.

I took home an armful of VHS tapes that day, such as Ransom and CB-4, but I remember being particularly excited about The Ref. I was 17 years old when The Ref hit theaters in 1994, but I didn't see it until a few years later, when I came across a mom-and-pop video store that was having a going-out-of-business sale back in the summer of 1996.

Baybrook movies