Tag Archives: review

Get Ready For Christmas With Santa and The Ice Cream Bunny!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Patrick tried to warn me.

When I told him that I was planning on watching 1972 film, Santa and The Ice Cream Bunny, he warned me that it would totally change the way that I viewed Christmas and probably not for the better.  But, you know me.  When I get an idea in my head, I simply have to do it.

Despite all the warnings, I watched Santa and the Ice Creamy Bunny.  I made Jeff and my friends Johnny and Jim watch it with me.  Leonard nearly joined us but he was smart enough to think twice. Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny was like nothing that any of us had ever seen before.  We all just kind of watched it like, “What the Hell is happening?!”

The plot — well, who knows?  Apparently, Santa is stuck in Florida and he calls a bunch of kids to come help him out.  It turns out that the kids are pretty stupid so not only do they fail to rescue Santa but Santa also has to tell them a story to keep their spirits up.  The version that we watched featured the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.  Apparently, there’s another version that features Thumbelina.  Regardless, Santa was probably doing some pretty serious drugs when he came up with the story.

Eventually, a human-bunny hybrid shows up and helps Santa transport back to North Pole.  Christmas is saved!

Interestingly enough, it’s never really explained how Santa came to be stuck in Florida in the first place.  Santa gives off a definite beach bum vibe and …. well, there’s a part of me that kind of doubts whether or not Santa was actually Santa Claus at all!  For all we know, he could just be some jerk with a sleigh and red suit.  That said, the Ice Cream Bunny was definitely for real.

As Patrick already pointed out in his review of the film, Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny is not a particularly good film but I do feel like it’s one that everyone should watch at least one.  It’s just so weird.  Plus, if you watch the version with Jack and the Beanstalk, you will totally get the giant’s theme song stuck in your head.

So, with all that in mind, please enjoy Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny!

Music Video of the Day: Run Rudolph Run by Chuck Berry (2020, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This song was actually recorded in 1958 and Chuck Berry died in 2017 so this video is a little bit late on both accounts but no matter!  Even in cartoon form, Chuck Berry looks like a god of rock and Santa might want to redesign his own sleigh and turn it into a convertible.  Seriously, a flying convertible is always going to be impressive.

It’s a good song and a cute video.  Watch it because it’s Christmas.

Enjoy!

Holiday Film Review: A Very British Christmas (dir by Steven Nesbit)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

2019’s A Very British Christmas tells the story of Jessica (Rachel Shenton), a world-famous singer who misses her flight to Vienna and somehow ends up stuck in a small country village in England.  Now, to be honest, I’m not really sure how Jessica missed her flight or why she ended up in that village.  I probably missed some important dialogue in the beginning to explain the problem with the flight and arriving in the village had something to do with getting too relaxed on a train.  But, to be honest, in the grand scheme of the film’s overall story, it really doesn’t matter why she’s in the village or why she missed her plane.

Instead, what’s important is that it’s nearly Christmas and Jessica needs a place to stay.  Fortunately, the local B&B is owned by a handsome widower named Andrew (Mark Killeen).  Andrew lives with his adorable daughter and his caring mother.  He’s not only a perfect host but he’s also an aspiring artist and he’s also the one man in the village who can hopefully convince the rest of the landowners not to sell out to a mining company….

Does all this sound familiar?  This may be a very British Christmas but it’s also a very Hallmark-y Christmas, even though this is not technically a Hallmark film.  That said, it has everything that you would typically expect from a Hallmark Christmas film.  Rachel and Andrew fall in love.  They do Christmas stuff.  They tour the countryside.  Rachel has to decide whether to stay in the village or to leave so that she can continue with her career.  You already know what’s going to happen.

I have to admit that I do wish that the film had been a bit more British.  Nowadays, when I hear the term “Very British,” I assume that means that there will at least be a fierce debate over Brexit, a good deal of casual profanity, and a lot of football talk.  Instead, this movie takes place in the type of British village that we Americans like to fantasize about, the place where all of the streets are cobblestone, all the citizens are friendly and earnest and everyone has mince pies for breakfast.

That said, it’s a sweet movie and, if you like this sort of thing, you should enjoy A Very British Christmas.  The scenery is nice, the actors are all likable, and the Christmas cheer cannot be denied.  One thing that I particularly appreciated about this film is that Rachel wasn’t presented as being someone who hated Christmas or who needed a man to show her how to embrace the holiday spirit.  Instead, Rachel pretty much falls in love with both the village and the B&B as soon as she sees it.  She’s not a snob or a cynic who needs be taught the importance of family and love.  Instead, she’s a nice person who meets a bunch of other nice people in a nice village and they all have a nice holiday.  You may have noticed that the key word here is “nice.”  There’s no darkness to be found in A Very British Christmas.  Andrew is a surprisingly cheerful widower and everything pretty much works out wonderfully for everyone.  Yay!

Music Video of the Day: Let It Snow, performed by Goo Goo Dolls (2020, dir by Raul Gonzo)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Seriously, I hope we get some snow down here in Texas this year.  I can’t remember the last time it actually snowed here by I know that it’s been at least a year.  I don’t think we’ve had any serious snow since 2016 and that’s really not fair.  For me, there’s nothing frightful about snow.  Instead, it’s something that I see so rarely that I can’t help but think of it as being a reward.  I want a nice, cold Christmas and I want a sudden snow storm and I want to look outside and see a bunch of people building snowmen out in their front yards.

It won’t happen by a girl can dream.

And we can also listen to yet another cover of Let It Snow, this one by Goo Goo Dolls.

Enjoy!

Documentary Review: Alabama Snake (dir by Theo Love)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Snake handling has never been for me.

Oh, don’t get me wrong.  I know that there are a lot of people who incorporate handling poisonous serpents into their religious rituals.  And I can even kind of see the appeal of it.  If the idea is that your faith is so strong that you don’t have to worry about what’s going to happen to you if you die, why not prove it by holding something that could potentially kill you?  If you believe that God is going to protect you, why would you fear handling a creature that can inject toxin straight into your bloodstream?

In fact, I’ll even go further and I’ll even acknowledge that there’s probably quite a rush that comes from successfully grabbing a snake and dancing around without getting bit.  I mean, it only makes sense.  Before you pick up the snake, you would undoubtedly be terrified.  But once you grabbed it and started to move around with it, the relief of not being bitten would have to be overwhelming.  In fact, it would probably be so overwhelming that it could potentially put you in a bit of a trance.  When I was eighteen, I was in a pretty serious car accident.  The car flipped over with me in it.  It was terrifying when it happened but after I realized that I had somehow survived the experience without only a few cuts and bruises, I was so exhilarated that I felt like I could fly.  I felt as if I had proof that I was special.  If I wasn’t special, how else could you explain me totaling my car without breaking my neck?

So, don’t get me wrong.  I get it.  That said, snake handling is not something that I could ever see myself doing.  Seriously, snake are scary!  I’ve seen my share of them and they always freak me out.  I once nearly stepped on a rattlesnake in New Mexico.  In Arkansas, I saw a water moccasin slithering down a creek.  I swear that I once saw a boa constrictor in Oklahoma, though my sisters swear that I was just dreaming and that there aren’t any boa constrictors in Oklahoma.  Maybe they’re right but still, the point stands.  I could flip my car and survive a hundred times, I’m still never going to go anywhere near a snake.

Alabama Snake is a creepy true crime documentary about Glenn Summerfield, a Pentecostal minister who did handle snakes.  In fact, he had an entire farm of them.  In 1991, he was arrested for trying to murder his wife, Darlene, with those snakes.  Darlene claimed that Glenn was an angry and mentally unbalanced drunk who forced her to stick her hand into a box of rattlesnakes, not once but twice.  The defense claimed that Darlene was trying to kill Glenn with the snakes but that she accidentally got bitten instead.

Featuring commentary from local historian and folklorist Thomas Burton, Alabama Snake takes a look at the crime, the trial, and the culture of fundamentalist serpent handling.  It’s a Southern Gothic horror story and it makes for creepy and atmospheric viewing.  Though the documentary doesn’t always go as far beneath the surface as one might hope that it would, it tells an interesting story and Thomas Burton provides lively commentary.  Fans of strange true crime will enjoy it and those of us who need another excuse to be wary of snakes will find one.

Music Video of the Day: Suzy Snowflake, performed by The Norman Luboff Choir (1953, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This music video is from 1953, back before anyone had even heard the term “music video.”  It originally aired on local Chicago television and it was produced by the animators at Centaur Productions.  It’s said that, for two minutes, there was no mafia activity in Chicago as everyone watched Suzy Snowflake.  That’s the power of the holidays!

I’m not sure if this was the first time this song was ever sung but Suzy Snowflake was subsequently covered by several artists and, in previous years, it was one of those songs that was in the regular holiday music rotation for most stores.  Maybe it still is.  I’m doing almost all of my Christmas shopping from home this year so I’m not really sure what they’re playing out there.  Yesterday, I did my nightly Christmas shopping while listening to Britney Spears.  Tonight, I’m going to listen to The Chemical Brothers and tomorrow, it’ll be time for Saint Motel.  I don’t know if people are going to like their presents but I’m enjoying the soundtrack.

But anyway, back to Suzy Snowflake!

I have to admit that I really hate this song.  I mean, seriously …. Suzy Snowflake just feels like she’s taunting those of us who live in the southwest.  We don’t ever get any snow!  Or at least, we haven’t gotten any recently.  A few years ago, it actually did snow on Christmas in Dallas and I ran outside and jumped up and down and then I ended up having to say in bed for a few days because I had a pretty cold.  But anyway, Suzy Snowflake plays favorites.  Poor Frosty melted and Suzy apparently can’t travel any further south than Indiana.  You’re a snob and an elitist, Suzy.

That said, this video is cute.  The song may make me grind my teeth but I probably would have loved the video if I had been alive in 1953.  And it’s a piece of history!  It’s from the early days of television!  You couldn’t do something like this one the radio, could you!?  Go to hell, Little Orphan Annie!  Drink your Ovaltine, indeed.  Oddly, the video actually aired on December 28th, three days after Christmas!  What’s up with that, Suzy?  YOU THINK YOU’RE TOO GOOD FOR CHRISTMAS!?

Anyway, enjoy!

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.

 

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.