Monthly Archives: December 2020

Holiday Film Review: The Christmas Chronicles 2 (dir by Chris Columbus)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

If I ever actually meet Santa Claus, I’ll be really disappointed if he doesn’t look like a bearded Kurt Russell.

Russell plays the role of St. Nicholas in The Christmas Chronicles 2 and he’s absolutely perfect in the role.  It’s not just that Russell is an intensely likable actor, though that’s certainly some of it.  Santa, after all, should be a likable character and it’s pretty much impossible not to like Kurt Russell.  Even when he was killing people in Death Proof, he was still the most likable serial killer that you could ever hope to meet.  Beyond just being likable, though, Russell brings a lot of joi de vivre to the role of Santa.  As played by Russell, Santa loves what he does.  Spreading Christmas cheer and keeping the holiday spirit alive is what he lives for.  Over the years, movies have given us stern Santas and humorous Santas and occasionally even incompetent Santas.  Kurt Russell is the fun Santa.

In The Christmas Chronicles 2, Russell is joined by his real-life partner, Goldie Hawn.  Goldie plays Mrs. Claus, who turns out to be a witch but a good one.  She’s the type of witch who makes gingerbread cookies the explode, which is certainly the best type of witch to be.  As I watched Goldie Hawn in this film, it occurred to me that if Hollywood is ever foolish enough to try to remake The Wizard of Oz, Goldie would be the perfect choice for Glinda.  Not surprisingly, Hawn and Russell have a lot of chemistry in The Christmas Chronicles 2.  They’re the perfect couple.  They’re exactly who you would hope Santa and Mrs. Claus would turn out to be.

(I have to say that, of all the Hollywood couples out there, Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn are the couple that I would want to actually live next door to.  Kurt seems like he would be good about repairing stuff around the neighborhood while Goldie seems like she would be the type to keep an eye on my Amazon deliveries until I got home from work or wherever.  I’d much rather live next to them than George and Amal Clooney, if just because the Clooneys seem like they would be the type to complain because you accidentally clipped their yard with a lawn mower or something.)

The Christmas Chronicles 2 actually does have a plot and it tells a pretty sweet little story.  A bitter elf named Belsnickel (Julian Dennison) is trying to ruin Christmas and it’s all up to Katie (Darby Camp) and Jack (Jahzir Bruno) to help Santa and Mrs. Claus save the world’s Christmas spirit.  Along the way, Katie gets to travel through time and meet her father and both Katie and Jack learn about the importance of family.  It’s all very sincere and very sweet and if it doesn’t bring at least one tear to your eyes this holiday season, you’re hopeless.  That said, The Christmas Chronicles 2 is ultimately all about star power and charisma.  The film works because Russell and Hawn are a total joy to watch.  Consider this: it’s a 114-minute film but the main story is resolved in 90 minutes.  The remaining 24 minutes are spent watching Russell and Hawn light a Christmas tree and hang out with Santa’s elves and it’s absolutely delightful to watch!  By the end of the film, you basically just want to move to the North Pole and live with the Clauses.

The Christmas Chronicles 2 is currently on Netlfix and it’s a fun little holiday romp.  It’s perfect for kids and the adults who sometimes have to watch movies with them.  There’s a great musical number and a few surprisingly clever jokes.  (I loved that when Santa and Mrs. Claus watched It’s A Wonderful Life, it was a version that had been dubbed into the Elvish language.)  Check it out.  It’ll lift your holiday spirits.

 

Music Video of the Day: You Ain’t Getting Nothin’ (2020, dir by Juan M. Urbina)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I’ve got this song stuck in my head now.  I’m not complaining there.  This is a lot better than that old Suzy Snowflake song that was stuck in my head.

Personally, I’m on Santa’s side here.  That brat doesn’t deserve any presents this year.  Or any other year, as far as I’m concerned.  If that leads to him embarking on a life of crime that’s fueled by holiday bitterness, so be it.

Don’t mess with Santa.

Enjoy!

Lisa’s Week In Review: 11/30/20 — 12/6/20

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Happy December, everyone!

Well, things are coming to a close as far as this year is concerned.  For the rest of this month, along with celebrating the holidays, I’ll be trying to get caught up on the 2020 films that I need to see.  I’m looking forward to it.

Here’s what I did this week:

Films I Watched:

  1. After We Collided (2020)
  2. The Angel Doll (2002)
  3. Ava (2020)
  4. Beyond Tomorrow (1940)
  5. Christmas Lodge (2011)
  6. Citizen Kane (1941)
  7. Collateral Beauty (2016)
  8. Deep Red (1975)
  9. Flap (1970)
  10. The Mystery of D.B. Cooper (2020)
  11. Red, White and Blue (2020)
  12. A Song for the Season (1999)
  13. Split Image (1982)
  14. The Warriors (1979)
  15. Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus (1991)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. A Teacher
  2. The Amazing Race 32
  3. Archie Bunker’s Place
  4. The Bachelorette
  5. Bar Rescue
  6. The Bold and the Beautiful
  7. Community
  8. Days of Our Lives
  9. Diff’rent Strokes
  10. Euphoria
  11. General Hospital
  12. Ghost Whisperer
  13. Growing Pains
  14. King of the Hill
  15. Major Crimes
  16. The Office
  17. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
  18. Saved By The Bell: The College Years
  19. Seinfeld
  20. Parking Wars
  21. Shipping Wars
  22. Three’s Company
  23. The Voice
  24. Who’s The Boss
  25. The Young and the Restless

Books I Read:

  1. Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater’s Dazed And Confused (2020) by Melissa Maerz
  2. Right Time, Right Place (2009) by Richard Brookhiser

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. Above & Beyond
  2. Armin Van Buuren
  3. Avicii
  4. Blondie
  5. Britney Spears
  6. Carly Rae Jepsen
  7. The Chemical Brothers
  8. Coldplay
  9. deadmua5
  10. Dillon Francis
  11. DJ Snake
  12. Dry Cleaning
  13. Eva Hurychova
  14. Goo Goo Dolls
  15. Haim
  16. HANA
  17. Hrdza
  18. Icona Pop
  19. Jakalope
  20. Krakow Loves Adana
  21. Lindsey Stirling
  22. Murder on Middle Beach
  23. Muse
  24. New Order
  25. Nilufer Yanya
  26. Nine Inch Nails
  27. Paul Oakenfeld
  28. Pentatonix
  29. Phantogram
  30. Saint Motel
  31. Sleigh Bells
  32. Taylor Swift
  33. Trentemøller
  34. Universal Honey

Awards Season Links:

  1. Lisa’s Oscar Predictions for October
  2. The Sunset Film Circle Awards

Links From The Site:

  1. I paid tribute to Terrence Malick and Ridley Scott! I shared music videos from Blondie, Pentatonix, Dry Cleaning, HANA, Carly Rae Jepsen, Hrdza, and Lindsey Stirling!  I reviewed Collateral Beauty, Red, White, and Blue, After We Collided, Yes Virginia There Is A Santa Claus, Beyond Tomorrow, and Christmas Lodge!
  2. Erin shared the covers of Beauty Parade and Naked Fury, December, The Passionate Season, Good Hardware, Too Many Loves, Queen of Tarts, and Film Fun!
  3. Jeff reviewed Frontier Uprising and Star in the Dust!
  4. Ryan reviewed Pussycats, Paperbacks, Pennants, And Penance, Mix Yourself A Dead End, Theater of Cruelty, and Rodeo Comics!

More From Us:

  1. For Reality TV Chat Blog, I reviewed the latest episode of The Amazing Race!
  2. Ryan has a patreon!  You should consider subscribing!
  3. On her photography site, Erin shared: Dallas 4, Christmas Trees Behind Plastic, Christmas Carriage, Light in the Dark, Christmas Tree, Path, and December!
  4. On my music site, I shared songs from Trentemøller, Paul Oakenfold, New Order, Britney Spears, Nilufer Yanya, Eva Hurychova, and Jakalope!

Want to see what I did last week? Click here!

Holiday Film Review: Christmas Lodge (dir by Terry Ingram)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

So, here you are.  You’re hiking in the wilderness with your boyfriend and you can’t help but notice that he doesn’t seem to be much of an outdoorsman.  He’s a city boy and you’re a mountain girl and who knows if those two cultures can come together.

Well, it turns out that they can’t but don’t worry!  No sooner has your boyfriend dumped you than you’ve found a new purpose in life!  You’re helping to restore and rebuild the old Christmas lodge where you and your family used to spend the holidays.  The important thing is to get it done quickly enough so that grandpa can see the lodge for one last time before he dies.  Fortunately, the lodge is owned by a handsome man who needs someone to be a mother for his daughter.  Perfect, right?

There’s really not a lot of conflict to be found in this film.  Erin Karpluk plays Mary, who decides to save the lodge and, at no point, does she really suffer from the type of self-doubts that you would expect someone to suffer in a film like this.  Instead, she decides to do it and then she does it.  There’s a few people who think that Mary is wasting her time but they quickly change their minds.  Even her break-up with her boyfriend has to be one of the nicest, most polite break-ups that I’ve ever seen.

Make no doubt about it, 2011’s Christmas Lodge is a holiday movie.  It’s continually positive and upbeat and unabashedly sentimental and, if you’re into that sort of thing, you’ll enjoy it.  And, to be honest, the holidays is a good time to give up cynicism and be optimistic for at least a few days.  Me, I get cheerfully sentimental when it comes to the holidays.  I smile at every Christmas tree.  I love every gift that I get.  And I usually shed a few tears while sharing memories with the family.  That’s what the holidays are for.  Christmas Lodge does a good job of tapping into that spirit.

That said, Christmas Lodge is perhaps a bit more religious that some people are going to like.  The film may seem like a typical romantic Hallmark holiday film but ultimately, there’s a lot of talk about God wanting the lodge to be built and the family to come together.  At one point, Mary’s grandfather even asks a hesitant carpenter what Jesus would do if he was told that the lodge needed to be repaired.  Personally, I suspect that he would open up the lodge to the poor and the homeless but, in Christmas Lodge, apparently he would just give up whatever other projects he had going on and lend a helping hand so the family could gather there while snow gently fell outside.

That said, I’m a sucker for any film that has people celebrating the holidays while snow gently falls from the sky.  Christmas Lodge is a sweet-natured movie.  It’s not the type of film that you’re going to watch in the harsh heat of the summer but, for the sentimental holidays, it gets the job done.

Holiday Film Review: Beyond Tomorrow (dir by A. Edward Sutherland)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I’m standing at the edge of tomorrow
And its all up to me how far I go
I’m standing at the edge of tomorrow

I’ve never seen such a view before
A new world before my eyes
So much for me to explore
It’s where my future lies

Today I’m standing at the edge of tomorrow
From here the future looks bright for me
And it’s all up to me how far I go
It’s my time to break away
I’m standing at the edge of tomorrow
Today

Beyond Tomorrow is a strange film from 1940.  Technically, it is a holiday film.  It takes place during the Christmas season and there’s a lot of very peppy scenes featuring people celebrating the holidays.  I watched the movie with my friends in the Late Night Movie Gang.  We’re a pretty sentimental group but even we felt that some of the characters went a bit overboard with the holiday cheer.  The film is also comedy and a romance and a musical and a ghost story and a melodrama and finally an oddly sincere meditation on life and death.  That’s a lot of weight for one film to carry and there were more than a few times that Beyond Tomorrow seemed like it might collapse in a heap of Christmas ambition.  Fortunately, the film always righted itself and, in the end, it actually managed to be …. well, definitely more interesting than what any of us were expecting!

The film opens with three businessmen (Harry Carey, C. Aubrey Smith, and Charles Winninger) living in a mansion with their Russian housekeeper (played by Maria Ouspenskaya, who was also the old gypsy lady in The Wolf Man).  As almost something of a lark, the three men arrange for James (Richard Carlson) to meet Jean (Jean Parker).  Jean is a teacher.  James is a singing cowboy from Texas.  Together, with the encouragement of the three businessmen, Jean and James get together.  Awwwww!

Unfortunately, the three businessmen are then all killed in a plane crash.  However, their ghosts remain on Earth and watch over the growing love between James and Jean.  Unfortunately, James become a singing sensation on the radio and soon, he’s being tempted to cheat.  Meanwhile, Jean’s ex-husband is running around with murder in his heart and a gun in his hand!  This romantic comedy has suddenly taken a very dark turn!

While the three ghosts look after James and Jean, they consider why they’re still on Earth and not in the afterlife.  One ghost is eventually greeted by his son, who died during the Great War.  Another one of the businessmen is haunted by vaguely defined sins and, even in death, he refuses to repent because he feels that he doesn’t deserve to go to Heaven.  Instead, he continually walks off into the darkness.  The last businessman continually tries to push James and Jean on the right path but it turns out that it’s not easy for the dead to talk sense to the living.

You can probably give yourself whiplash trying to keep up with the film’s tonal changes.  It starts out with romance and comedy and then suddenly, it’s turns into an existential rumination of love, forgiveness, and guilt.  Once the three businessmen die, it becomes a totally different story.  Suddenly, soldiers are returning from the dead and the gates of Hell are beckoning.  And, on top of that, James keeps breaking out into song every few minutes!

It’s a very strange film.  Unfortunately, from the start, the pacing feels off.  By today’s standards, Beyond Tomorrow gets bogged down in all of the songs and the scenes of holiday mirth-making.  That may not have been as much of a problem for audiences in 1940 but I have to say that, speaking as someone trying to watch this film in 2020, Beyond Tomorrow made my ADD go crazy.  If not for my friends and their patient willingness to inform me what was going on in the film, I probably wouldn’t have been able to follow the film’s storyline.

That said, the film was fairly well-acted and the final scenes, with the heavenly gates in the sky, are undeniably effective.  Speaking as a history nerd, I found it interesting to see how the shadow of World War I still hung over a film that was made 21 years after that war ended.  As the scenes in which one of the ghosts is a reunited with son showed, America was still dealing with trauma and horror of the first modern war.  (One year after the release of Beyond Tomorrow, Japan would bomb Pearl Harbor and America entered World War II, a conflict that many hoped to avoid precisely because they remembered the all of the men who didn’t make it home during the previous war in Europe.)  Messy though the film may be, Beyond Tomorrow functions well as both a historical document and a bit of sentimental wish fulfillment.

Compared to holiday classics like the original Miracle on 34th Street and It’s A Wonderful Life, Beyond Tomorrow is relatively unknown.  Certainly, it’s no classic.  But, for fans of both Christmas and old movies, it’s still an interesting trip into the past.