Christmas makes you watch sappy stuff you'd normally avoid. I started off Christmas week with
A Holiday Engagement (2011 TVM), a Christmas TV-movie with a romantic angle, featuring only good looking white people, if only there were more like this!
Okay, jabs outta the way, it's a bit of harmless holiday nog, nothing extraordinary, but it has a fun sitcomy premise that's fun to watch, even though it's full of plot holes. Why didn't Hillary's family know what her fiance looked like before, she should have at the very least have had his photo on her Facebook page.
Coming To America (1988)
Murphy and Landis make a solid pair every time, and this movie still works after all these years. I haven't seen it since the 80's so it seems pretty fresh to me now. It's not non-stop laughs, but you get actual storytelling to maintain your interest.
Eddie and Arsenio Hall both play multiple characters and this was the first movie in which Eddie did so. Why didn't Arsenio have a bigger movie career after this? He is funny in a way that not many people can be, and he was also the best thing in
Amazon Women on the Moon.
This is one of Eddie's best and most successful movies. The sequel should be fun when it rolls out next year.
Noelle (2019)
Yes, I got Disney + for Christmas and I kicked it all off with this Christmas offering.
Anna Kendrick's exuberant charm makes this movie, which otherwise taunts us with Bill Hader and then withholds him from us for most of the movie. We are more forgiving of Christmas movies because we watch them at Christmas when we are feeling Christmasy and are full of gingerbread and rum. This was enjoyable for the most part and it fulfills it's Christmas movie duty.
Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood (2019)
Yes, I watched it all again and I liked it very much.
Dolemite Is My Name (2019)
Eddie Murphy was such a comedy hero of mine as a kid and so it's so great to see him bounce back and get to strut his stuff once again. No one can deliver a line like him. He has a great supporting cast of epic proportions here, especially Wesley Snipes, who steals plenty of scenes too. I had never really been aware of Rudy Ray Moore so this was educational as well as entertaining. Having seen this I know I'll be looking up his movies soon.
I watched this near Christmas with my mom, her only review was, "He sure likes that word motherf*#@er!"
All The Creatures Were Stirring (2018)
I watched this because of the poster and because it's Christmas. The first story about an office Christmas gift exchange was good, although I felt it could have been fleshed out more. Then the whole thing went sour like that one drunk uncle who comes over at Christmas and falls in the tree. The poster has nothing to do with the movie itself, there were no creatures stirring in this movie.
Mrs. Claus (2018)
Mrs. Claus has murder on her mind this Christmas, and she's out to get whoever is naughty or nice! Very low budget with some questionable acting, but it delivers the goods. If you're a fan of gore and throat slittings, then this is the holiday movie for you!
Holmes and Watson (2018)
Silly and stupid but that's what I look for from Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly movies. I didn't laugh until the vomiting scene and then I cracked. It's got modern pop songs and historical inacurracies galore, it was never meant to be taken too seriously. Probably for fans mostly. Ralph Fiennes as Moriarty is fantastic casting, too bad he never really got to strut his stuff. That would be my biggest complaint.
Deep Blue Sea 2 (2018)
Expectations were very low for this sequel in name only, so maybe I was slightly surprised by how unterrible it was?!?
It's practically a remake of the first movie, and there's zero mention of what went on in the original. That movie had an all-star cast and this one features a guy who was in
Aquaman. But it's good, in a shark-movie sort of way...if you watch enough of these, you know what a really bad one looks like.
My only real complaint is the poster depicts a great white shark but in the movie they are modified bull sharks. I don't mind, but why not advertise it as such?
Vacation (2015)
"Can we go home now?"
While most of the world is likely watching
Christmas Vacation on Christmas Eve, my weirdo family puts on the 2015 remake/reboot/whatever. It's raunchy and has some good scenes worth a chuckle. The best was the scene with the girl in the convertible who distracted James, that got the best reaction. Yeah, I come from a twisted bunch.
I realize a lot of people didn't care for this movie but I enjoyed it and liked how it kept this series going. I'd love a sequel but this one wasn't well received.
The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter (2018)
This cast came armed and ready but they are let down slightly by the script. Not a great balance between the humor and the drama. Not that humorous or dramatic, but the three main characters are so interesting to watch together than they nearly make up for any and all lacking areas. Big fan of all involved and it has its moments.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
So much was going on in this final finale that it would be a real brain strain to get into it all. I did like the obvious fan nods, especially Chewbacca getting his medal.
I did not like the vibe that they were course-correcting after The Last Jedi a lot of the time and the general sense of rushing moments so we can rush on to the next moment.
Overall, it's quite satisfying, it was never going to make everyone happy, but it will feed Star Wars debates for many years to come. Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley carried the movie, the rest of the cast had a lot less to do.
The Force will be with you...always.
Dumbo (1941)
This is really one of the sweetest Disney movies ever, even more so than Bambi. Thank Walt for Disney+ for now I finally got to see this in its entirety. Beautiful classic songs, loads of sentiment and that pink elephants scene all add up to a great little movie of elephant proportions. 🐘
Dumbo (2019)
I came for Dumbo's sweet blue eyes and Eva Green's French accent and both delivered as I expected. Danny DeVito is surprisingly poignant as the circus owner. This live-action update is really quite good, probably better than some of the rest that all seemed to come out at once in 2019, although I haven't seen them all just yet. It has a classic magical feel, that nice Tim Burton-esque vibe.
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Another fun episode of
Spidey: The Teen Years.
Man, these kids really get to go on a lot of school trips. My class of misfits would have caused more trouble than Mysterio had we ever been allowed to go to Europe!
The movie is pretty frantic and never boring, just found myself wishing it didn't have to sweep up after
Avengers: Endgame so much. Spider-Man in his own contained solo story might be a thing of the past now that he's in the MCU for good. I admit to pining for the Tobey Maguire or even Andrew Garfield versions a little.
Love this cast though: Holland, Jackson, Gyllenhaal, Favreau, Tomei, not to mention that welcomed surprise actor during the end credits, all doing great work.
Dark Phoenix (2019) a.k.a.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix
It takes great talent and skill to take on one of the most beloved X-Men stories and make it average. At least there was some excitement in The Last Stand, which covered Jean Grey going dark back in 2006. The X-Men look great in group shots in their uniforms, but they get very little action. That train sequence at the end saved this from totally becoming
My Dinner With Jean. The villains were initially intriguing but were never fleshed out.
It's still an X-Men movie, so I enjoyed just seeing them again, but kept wanting it to go all epic, like this series has in the past. It reeks of 20th Century Fox wanting to pump just one more out before being swallowed whole by Disney. There wasn't a lot of heart or humor like in previous chapters. J-Law has only a small role, and I nearly gave up waiting for Fassbender to show up. The cast are game, but the script is pretty limp half the time. As the concluding chapter of the X-Men movies at Fox, this should have been a monster of a movie, instead it whimpers off like a wounded dog.
A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby (2019)
I watched the first two because of Rose McIver (
iZombie) and Sarah Douglas (
Superman II), but this one was weak. It could have been something special, but the baby is barely part of the plot. Surely, Netflix doesn't have plans to make this a quadrilogy for Christmas 2020!
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)
A beautiful looking movie, the costumes and set design are more than impressive, and the music is amazing, since all this is based on the famous ballet. Mackenzie Foy as Clara is very talented and will go on to great things, no doubt. Keira Knightley is both on point and slightly bonkers at the same time.
But it's all a little unexciting and seems a little bland at times. It's not terrible, just doesn't give us much reason to care. It was a almost a nice
Pride & Prejudice (2005) reunion with Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen both in this, but they don't share any scenes.
Let It Snow (2019)
It's as if
Can't Hardly Wait and
Love Actually had a baby and sold it on the black market to Netflix. Loved Joan Cusack in this, she got her start in these kinds of movies with John Hughes'
Sixteen Candles. Not a bad teen movie, worth a watch over the holidays.
Edge of Fear (2018)
Amaury Nolasco, Robert Knepper, Rockmond Dunbar and Jodi Lyn O'Keefe? What is this, some kinda
Prison Break reunion or what? Pretty standard action thriller, we've all seen it all before, but still enjoyable for fans of the genre. It held my interest the whole time. My family picked this one out because I was forcing everyone to watch Christmas movies.
The Grinch (2018)
At first I was all like, do we even need another version of this story? I mean, we already have one classic cartoon adaptation and an equally beloved/hated live-action version (depending who you ask). But this kinda won me over with a relatively fresh version of the tale. The Grinch is slightly watered down, not so grinchy, he has issues now that he never had before. He also seems to listen to lots more hip-hop than when I was a kid. The animation is quite good and colorful. Adults might find the movie somewhat lacking but the under-10 crowd will be transfixed.
Men In Black: International (2019) a.k.a.
Men In Black: Ragnarok
A mostly generic MIB sequel, with flashes of fun here and there, but mostly feels like leftovers: reheated stuff no one wanted.
Loved when Rebecca Ferguson appeared (she's been a breakout star of 2019) and of course, the Thompson Twins (Emma and Tessa). Hemsworth plays his usual suave-dork character again, but the script isn't so clever or funny as other MIB movies. Still, it maintains interest throughout and well, at least it's not
R.I.P.D.Klaus (2019)
Welcome to the jingle!
Was not prepared for how much I loved this. The animation is beautiful and the story is too. Some snark from the lead character keeps you on your toes. The message is loud and clear: A simple act of kindness always sparks another. A Christmas insta-classic. If this doesn't become a beloved Christmas tradition then I'll move to Smeerensburg and become the new postman!
Have a safe and happy new year! Catch ya next week/year/decade!
