I've ordered the book now. Up to ep 10 and still loving it. This is the deepest I've ever gone in one of these complex narrative shows without encountering feelings of disappointment where the plot can't be resolved. IMO the show works because it's mysteries don't involve sci-fi type problems and canon - the timeline just buzzes around which has turned out to be awesome
I like "Die Hard" but I'm not humbuggy enough to call it a Christmas movie. But I don't have enough sentiment to like the really Christmassy ones either. Fortunately there's "Scrooged..."
The Nightmare Before Christmas is probably my favorite Christmas movie (at least, theatrical release). Sorry, @TheJoeGreene, I appreciate your dedication to and knowledge of Christmas Movies, but I am going all humbug on this one. I fully expect to be pillorized for this one, but It's a Wonderful Life is one of my absolute least favorite movies, Christmas movie or otherwise. It's saccharine at its worst. I absolutely despise this movie. It is well made, though, and I get why so many people absolutely love the movie. So much so, that there are 24 hour cable tv showings every December. That said: It is incredibly tilted and it is so f'n obvious that George Bailey was a fortunate person and an amazingly good person, that the entire concept is ridiculous. He saves his brother's life. He saves the patient's life. He pays for his brother's college, having saved money for his own college, but gives it up to stay and take over the "family business." He has a loving family with a lovely wife and great children. He has a great house. He sets up a great housing project. He offers his life insurance to recover the money his idiot uncle loses. He sets aside his "future" (to see the world) to take over the business. Waaaaaaaaaah, he has to become the President of a building and loan. How sad for him to have to resign himself to such a fate, something that 99% of us could never achieve, and that he can do as a step down to his "dreams." He also does not have to struggle for 30 years and "work his way up" to achieve the position. Nope, he just has to not go off to college at that time. By the way, George Bailey is still relatively young at the end of the movie (Jimmy Stewart was 38 at the time it was made) and the f'n world is still there to be explored. He has lost nothing. A couple of other things: Mary is a "spinster" in the alternative world, as if there is NO OTHER guy for her than George f'n Bailey. Yes, she can have absolutely no agency. Also, if he never existed, she could not have 'loved him' her entire life. Frankly, Pottesville seems a hell of a lot more fun than Bedford Falls. If he is depressed (not that depression and suicide are not necessarily linked), he had plenty of opportunities, even in the 1940's, to seek professional help. He is white, suburban, upper middle-class. He could easily find a mental health professional that most of the rest of the nation would not be able to obtain. Also, there is nothing wrong with him taking his own life. If he was that unhappy with his life, and saw no alternative (despite his great family, awesome job, plans to see the world, etc.), he should have every right to end his life. Instead, it is just a bit of whiny, self-aggrandizing bullcrap. Also, if he had thrown himself off of the bridge, it is not that the same as "having never been born." His brother's life would still have been saved. The patient would still have been saved. Mary would still have the kids and memories of him. His brother still was able to go to college. Etc. etc. Watch the Married with Children's version, "It's a Bundyful Life" (Season 4, Episodes 11 and 12) for a much, much more realistic telling of the story. Al Bundy is stringing lights and is electrocuted. Sam Kineson, as the guardian "angel," shows him what life would have been like if he never existed. THAT is one of my favorite Christmas shows. By the way, don't get me started about the disgusting bigotry and exploitation that is at the heart Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!
A Christmas Carol with George C Scott. Good luck finding it. Patrick Stewart is pretty good. Watch either one of those and you'll know how brilliant Taosjohn's S.O.'s choice is!
Carol. Hence my correction (and subsequent acknowledgment here). I have to blame that on a day's worth of multitasking several mindless duties at once. Alas, I can't palm that one off on auto-correct.
Alla ricerca del piacere (1972) Dir. Silvio Amadio Greta Franklin arrives in Venice, sent by her employer, a NYC based publishing house, to take up a position as author Richard Stuart's new secretary. Stuart's previous secretary Sally disappeared without a trace. Unbeknownst to her new boss, Greta is a friend and former lover of Sally's who used her employment at the same company Sally worked for to get the job. Her goal is to use the access to Stuart's villa to investigate Sally's disappearance. Richard and his girlfriend Eleonora welcome Greta in a friendly and generous manner, yet there is just enough off about their behavior to raise Greta's suspicions that they know more about Sally's fate. Even though Richard himself has tried to convince the local police commissioner that Sally just left one day, without warning and taking all of her possessions along with her. When Greta confides in the commissioner about the real reason for her being there he reveals an obvious danger to her: if Richard and Eleonora are really guilty of Sally's disappearance, her staying at the secluded villa, which is only accessible by boat, is dangerous. One thing about watching a giallo for the first time in ages is that it tends to whet your appetite for more. So not a first watch this time, but a re-watch, though my original viewing of this film must now be close to two decades ago. This one is a bit of a slow burner, though kept interesting by the interplay between the two leads, Farley Granger (most famous for his Hitchcock collaborations) playing Stuart just sleazily enough to keep the attention and Barbara Bouchet's wide-eyed determination its opposite. Featuring quite a few on-location shots in and around Venice, though the primary location where most of the action takes place is the villa.
Seems kind of cheap to get two collections of rep for writing a single post, but I'm petty enough to gobble all of them up.
Christmas Under the Lights - 2024 (Hallmark Mystery) Emily's family moved from Seattle to Fake Hallmark Town USA when she was a child. She hated it and left as soon as possible. She lived in LA and never visited. Now, after her mother has died, she decides to come home and help her brother with running the Christmas Carnival that their mother always did. She gets back and has a meet cute with Luke, the guy who had lived with their family during college that she doesn't remember. They bicker their way into a Hallmark ending and it's decent the whole way. The background/supporting characters are below average for Hallmark, but not bad. Marco Grazzini above average as Luke, the male lead. The star of the show, and the one who drags this into the top half of the films so far this year, is Heather Hemmens as Emily. She's legitimately talented and should be doing better material than Hallmark movies or the Roswell reboot. My rankings so far (I'm about 10 behind on the main ones and haven't touched GAF or Hallmark+ yet). Everything from My Sweet Austrian Holiday and above is at least decent enough to watch without wanting to mortally wound yourself or Rachel Boston. That Christmas Netflix Christmas on the Ranch Hulu Christmas on Call Hallmark Santa Tell Me Hallmark A Reason for the Season Hallmark Mystery The Merry Gentlemen Netflix Jingle Bell Love Roku Channel Tis the Season to be Irish Hallmark A Novel Noel Hallmark Mystery Confessions of a Christmas Letter Hallmark Three Wiser Men and a Boy Hallmark Hot Frosty Netflix Christmas Under the Lights Hallmark Mystery Twas the Date Before Christmas Hallmark Holiday Mismatch Hallmark The 5-Year Christmas Party Hallmark Trivia at St. Nicks Hallmark Holiday Crashers Hallmark To Have and to Holiday Hallmark Operation Nutcracker Hallmark A Carol for Two Hallmark The Christmas Charade Hallmark Jingle Bell Run Hallmark My Sweet Austrian Holiday Hallmark Mystery Scouting for Christmas Hallmark Our Holiday Story Hallmark Our Little Secret Netflix Christmas with the Singhs Hallmark This Time Each Year Hallmark Mystery Five Gold Rings Hallmark Mystery Meet Me Next Christmas Netflix Debbie Macomber's Joyful Mrs. Miracle Hallmark
That is quite the list! I am not sure to be impressed or frightened that you have watched all of those Christmas movies, but I am leaning towards impressed! @TheJoeGreene, as the official expert on all things Hallmark, what are your feelings about Lacey Chabert and long & extensive Hallmark career?
She's interesting. Her early career seemed like she was getting pigeon holed as the ditsy bimbo and even a bit of a scream queen (Mean Girls, Daddy Day Care, Black Christmas, Dirty Deeds, Thirst, etc.) and then around a decade ago she seemed to realize that there was a lot of money in Hallmark films and she could do their style of slapped together movie better than most. It's interesting that she's done a ton of voice work, all the way from being the original Meg on Family Guy to voicing Supergirl last year on Harley Quinn. Is she great? Nope, but she's solid in most supporting roles and is more than good enough to lead a Hallmark film.
Here's my second answer in eerily timed form from a completely different person: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/08/arts/christmas-movies-hallmark-lohan.html
Anatomy of a Murder (1959) Dir. Otto Preminger Paul Biegler is a former D.A. turned defense attorney. Upon returning from one of his many fishing trips, he gets a call from a Mrs. Laura Manion, asking him if he would consider representing her husband in a murder trial. He is brought up to speed on the case by his friend, former lawyer and functioning alcoholic Parnell McCarthy. The accused is a Lt. Frederick Manion. Manion turned himself in for the murder of Barney Quill, the proprietor of an inn his wife and himself used to frequent. The motive for the murder appears to be the rape of Laura at the hands of Quill earlier that evening. With the accused own confession of having killed Quill and several witnesses to the act, Biegler and McCarthy agree that their best defense would be one of temporary insanity, but there are many hurdles to overcome in that regard, not in the least the complicated relationship between the very flirty and attractive Mrs. Manion and her very jealous husband. I guess I am revealing myself as a philistine for having never seen this until now. It is a clever and very entertaining courtroom drama, entirely earning its 160 minute runtime. There is zero fat and self-indulgence on this thing. A fantastic lead performance by Jimmy Stewart, ably accompanied by performances of equal quality by Lee Remick as the wife of the accused, Arthur O'Connell as his colorful best friend and confidante and George C. Scott as a shark of a prosecution attorney. Ably helmed by film noir veteran Otto Preminger. And featuring a fantastic Duke Ellington soundtrack. Discovering something as good as this is what I hope for each time I hit play on a film I have yet to see, only those expectations are rarely realized. Also one of those late 1950s films in which countless small things about the writing, performances, ... reveal that the 1960s are just around the corner.
Nutcrackers - 2024 (Hulu) Mike is a real estate agent dealing with high dollar redesign and redevelopment jobs in Chicago. Just before a big job presentation he learns that his sister Janet and her husband Steve were killed in a car accident leaving behind their four young sons. Mike travels to the small town farm where they lived and finds the kids living like feral animals themselves. He talks to the local child services worker, Gretchen, as they try to find a home for the kids so he can get back to his job. Shenanigans ensue, Mike grows to like the kids and they begin to get the hang of acting like civilized humans. As they spend more time together, he gets them to put on a completely re-imagined version of The Nutcracker in an attempt to save the ballet school in town that his sister ran. This brings them closer together and brings Mike and Gretchen closer together. Turn your inner cynic off and enjoy this for what it is. It's absurd, it's completely over-the-top at times, and it's saccharin sweet at others. It's got a lot of the feel of the movies from the 80s without the idiocy of a lead character like Clark Griswold learning nothing. Ben Stiller plays Max and he is good at these neurotic loner who grows a heart types of roles. I think he would be a really interesting choice for something that's in the middle of Scrooged and A Christmas Carol as far as an Ebeneezer Scrooge role would go. Linda Cardellini is Gretchen and could do this kind of gorgeous small town woman with the big heart in her sleep. She's still 99% of the reason why men like women. Toby Huss is really good as the religious dad in town going through a midlife crisis but still being too uptight. Edi Patterson is excellent as the weird single woman who collects foster kids like Pokemon. The four kids are played by four real life brothers, Homer, Ulysses, Arlo, and Atlas Janson, and while they're not great they all deliver enough to feel like real kids in a mini Lord of the Flies situation. They've also clearly got that Midwestern Hanson brothers look going for them.
I don't know as the world needs a reviewer reviewer. but the last couple are really good, I think. Tell me enough about the movie to make me feel I can make a semi-informed choice whether to commit time and effort to it, without telling me so much that it is spoiled. Thanks to both...