While I’m stuck on a surprisingly long wait list at the
library for my next Oscar winner, Gone
with the Wind (Seriously? I thought I was the only one who’d never seen
this movie.), I’ve been watching more stuff on Netflix lately.
‘Tis the busy season at work, which means I’ve been spending
my extended shifts entirely on my feet, running around like a chicken with its
head cut off. I’m pretty brain dead these days. That means that I don’t have
much energy or attention span, so my interest has turned to the truly important
things in life, like watching cheesy
Christmas movies. Here’s a recap of the 3 I recently watched:
Santa Claus: The Movie
Released 1985 (USA). Stars: Dudley Moore, John Lithgow,
David Huddleston & Judy Cornwell. Director: Jeannot Szwarc.
The first half of the movie focuses on how Santa & Mrs.
Claus (Huddleston & Cornwell) get the “job” of distributing toys to all the
children of the world. The second half focuses on the conflict between Santa and
his eager elf Patch (Moore), who has a lot of modern, innovative ideas, which Santa chooses
to ignore. When Patch feels unappreciated, he runs away and naively joins forces with
the evil toy-maker B.Z. (Lithgow), hoping to prove to Santa how useful he can
be.
This is truly a kids’ movie. I know I saw it once when I was
a child. It’s dopey and sappy, full of both plot holes, cheese whiz, and stuff that's not remotely believable. And
yet, I find a certain charm in it. I think the movie is both slow &
cumbersome in the first half, but I enjoy the second half when it focuses on
Dudley Moore. I especially enjoyed the interaction between Moore & Lithgow,
who play very well off of one another. Also, Lithgow is at his
mustache-twirling, over-the-top best in this one.
If you have no tolerance for cheesy movies, I don’t
recommend it (actually, I don’t recommend practically any Christmas movie then,
haha), but I enjoyed it enough to give it 3
stars.
Holiday Engagement
Released 2011 (USA). Stars: Bonnie Somerville, Shelley Long,
& Jordan Bridges. Director: Jim Fall.
Okay, you’ve certainly heard this one before. Hillary
(Somerville) is constantly hounded by her mother (Long) about how she needs to
finally settle down and marry the perfect man. So when her fiancé Jason (Chris
McKenna) breaks up with her just days before they’re supposed to spend
Thanksgiving weekend with her family, she hires actor David (Bridges) to play
the role of Jason. Hilarity (not really) ensues. And of course, Hillary and David
fall in love for reals.
Honestly, there’s no new ground covered here. You’ve heard
it all before. It all wraps up in a nice tidy bow, way, way more nicely &
quickly than things tend to work out in real life. However, sometimes I find
that I really enjoy just sitting down & watching something that I know is
going to turn out happily. The acting is pretty good in this one. Jordan
Bridges is dang cute (yes, he’s one of the
Bridges). Additionally, I admired the movie for trying to take on a more
serious theme, about loving the one we deserve rather than loving the one we’re
with, i.e. you don’t have to date a jerk just because he/she is “perfect” on
paper.
On a side note, wouldn’t it be nice if there were more
movies that had the message: “It’s totally fine if you never get married, as
long as you’re happy”? I digress.
I’d say that this movie is pleasantly rote. It’s what I like
to call “a light bit of confection.” I give it 3 stars.
Christmas Cupid
Released 2010 (USA). Stars: Christina Milian, Ashley Benson,
Jackee Harry, & Chad Michael Murray. Director: Gil Junger.
Sloane Spencer (Milian) is a self-centered publicist bent on
“trading up” on men until she can find the right one to further her career
& life. Her current project is throwing the premiere party for her troubled
celebrity Caitlin Quinn (Benson), thus earning herself the coveted VP position
at her firm. However, when Caitlin dies in a drinking mishap, she returns to
Sloane in the form of a ghost, charged with helping Sloane see the errors of
her self-centered, man-eating ways. Jackee Harry plays Sloane’s mother &
Chad Michael Murray plays an old love, “the one who got away.”
It’s “A Christmas Carol” meets a stupid romance movie, and
it’s pretty awful. The story is a jumbled mess. Random, large amounts of time
pass where Sloane apparently works really hard at her job, which we never see.
Sloane is such a horrible person throughout 95% of movie that I found myself
kind of hoping she would end up dying alone in the hospital after all. Her
redemption in the last 5 minutes of the film wasn’t believable, nor was the Murray
character’s forgiveness of her (seriously, what she did to him in this movie, no
sane person would have forgiven her). Christina Milian was terrible. I’ve never
seen her in anything else, so I don’t know if it was a typical performance.
Chad Michael Murray looked like he was in physical pain throughout the whole
movie.
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