A Keller Christmas Vacation - 2025 (Hallmark) Three adult siblings are asked to join their parents for a family cruise down the Danube at Christmas. All three are dealing with work and relationship issues while their parents have a secret they're trying to not reveal. There's some shenanigans, including the siblings missing the ship leaving port one time and ending up riding on what looked like a 1940s era German motorcycle with a sidecar to reach their next destination. The best one of these so far this year. It helps that Brandon Routh (Cal), Jonathan Bennett (Dylan) and Eden Sher (Emory) actually have some acting chops. Nigel Whitmey and Laurel Lefkow are solid as their parents. Frédéric Brossier is good in a supporting role as Noah, the cruise ship director and Jill Winternitz plays the potential love interest, Felicity, perfectly. Even the bit parts for people like Bettina Kenney, as travelling dance troupe leader Hilda, really work and feel authentic. Eden Sher steals the spotlight for me and she's what I thought the adult years of Mayim Bialik would be like. The on location filming in Austria and Bulgaria helps the film quite a bit as well. A+
Icefall (2025) Dir. Stefan Ruzowitzky After a cold open in which we witness a very organized and violent heist crew raid a stash house belonging to the Albanian mob, the outfit manages extraction with a loot of tens of millions of dollars in cash. The Cessna airplane they are using to get the money out crashes, with the loot deemed lost somewhere in native American lands. Five months later, Harlan, a solitary poacher living off the land finds a suitcase and a dead body within a frozen lake. The suitcase in question contains millions of dollars. Harlan extracting the case from the water reactivates a tracker that alerts the original heist crew. Harlan himself gets picked up by a game warden, a native woman herself, though the pair soon have to rely on each other as they are chased by the criminals, who want their money back. In spite of the terrible poster art and the frankly stereotypical set-up (A Simple Plan and Cliffhanger are just two of the movies who use a similar premise), I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I might. I guess I'm just sucker for any wintery setting with nice vistas of frozen lakes, snowy fields and pine forests. The two leads, Joel Kinnaman and Cara Jade Myers are also decent in this. And Danny Huston shows up to chew scenery as the kind of two-dimensional villain he has played throughout his career. Also nice to see Graham Greene show up in this, in what must have been one of his final acting jobs.
Two shows. 1. House of Guinness [2025] No idea how accurate the representation here is, but I thought the show was fairly entertaining...at least the first season so far. Some familiar faces from Game of Thrones as supporting cast to make this feel more recognizable. 2. The Diplomat [Season 3] I really enjoy this show. I think the writing is great and the story is intriguing enough to keep you watching. The leads and the supporting cast also do a tremendous job.
Action Movie #5 The Bourne Identity ~ D. Liman Maybe the most re-watched action movie on the list as this was definitely one I'd watch through on cable if I ever came across it. I waffled on if a "spy thriller" should really count for the action movie week, but after watching, I realized this is much more action than spy thriller. Maybe that's just my impression that a spy thriller should have mystery involved. We're basically told from the start who Jason Bourne is, so the mystery only exists for the main character and love interest. I'm not sure delaying that reveal to the audience would be better, though, because they have Chris Cooper and Brian Cox doing great work as the CIA villains. Action Movie #6 Mad Max: Fury Road ~ G. Miller I saved Fury Road for the last film in our action movie fest, mainly, because my son was mostly interested in "explosions" when I mentioned the idea of watching a bunch of movies over break. I promised him this one would have the most. While I think he liked T2 better, he did agree that this movie is basically one explosion after another. Action Movie Week was a fun time. I got to introduce some great movies to my son, some of which I hadn't seen in years, and I think we all enjoyed it. I think I selected a good mix of different types of action movies (adventure, samurai, individual vs. group, sci-fi, spy thriller, and apocalypse).
After Death Ring I was second guessing my completionist route, and there are a number of early streaming era movies with absolutely dismal reviews. However, one had some eye-catching actors and I thought it couldn't possibly be that bad. The Most Dangerous Game (2022) Against the wishes of the captain, the fabulously entertaining owner of a large yacht orders it to pass through a known dangerous strait off the coast of Alaska. The ship suffers an explosion and the only survivors are famed hunter Rainsford, his PTSD suffering son Sanger, and another of their hunting party, the stockbroker Rex. They wash ashore on an island containing an impressive structure occupied by Baron Von Wolf. Von Wolf escaped Germany after WWII with his wealth intact and has spent it traveling the world to serve his passion - hunting. But he eventually found it all too easy until he found a new and most unusual prey. Now the survivors are on the run. A reasonably close retelling of the original with a few changes to keep us watchers of 20 Most Dangerous Game movies guessing. Filmed on a microbudget with only two interior rooms (that were probably the same room redressed) and a couple bad computer effects. Much of the cast were names in the 1980's and 1990's who I guess were desperate for minimum wage work. On the other hand, most of the movie was filmed outdoors in the beautiful Pacific Northwest by a director who knew what to point the camera at. The movie opened with five minutes of Bruce Dern shooting the breeze and there's no one better at it in the world. Casper Van Dien's German accent was stilted and uneven, but somehow I found it impossibly charming and entertaining. We get a bit of both the anti-hunting message of the original Most Dangerous Game and the anti-war message of Bloodlust!. Drags a bit at the hour mark, but - and I'm going to sound insane - I really liked this.
Finding a movie you really like at the bottom of the bargain bin is one of the greatest feelings as a movie lover.
It's the foreign prince angle that has me wondering. I use Fredonia and Parador as sample states in some of my assignments; I will always remember the line from Duck Soup - "if you think this country's bad off now, just wait til I get through with it."
My friend owns a bar in Fredonia, AZ, just across the border from Kanab. It’s the last stop before getting to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Buckskin Tavern.
Ballerina (2023) Dir. Chung-Hyun Lee Ook-ja is a retired bodyguard who is contacted by her friend Min-hee, a ballerina, out of the blue. Min-hee asks to meet up that night, but by the time Ook-ja shows up at her place, Min-hee is nowhere to be found... until Ook-ja finds her dead in her bathtub. Inside of a gift left for Ook-ja, she also finds a written message left for her by Min-hee, begging Ook-ja to avenge her death. Ook-ja investigates the circumstances of Min-hee's life in the months leading up to her passing and zeroes in on Choi Pro, a drug dealer and sex trafficker with a sadistic streak. When Ook-ja's attempt at revenge fails, she suddenly finds herself targeted not just by Choi Pro, but also the criminal organization he is associated with. Like the John Wick spin-off of the same name that stars Ana de Armas, this is an actioner with a female lead. And I like the South-Korean movie a lot more than the American one. It's a fairly simple revenge story, but nicely told, with some decent fight choreography and a good lead performance by Jeon Jong-seo - still most well-known to western audiences for her role in Lee Chang-dong's Burning. I also liked the sound design in this, especially during the fight scenes. It's not subtle, but it works. And in terms of throwaway quirky moments, the elderly husband-and-wife pair of gun dealers were a nice touch and a classic bit of action cinema comic relief.
Ready or Not (2019) The estate is prepared for the glorious wedding between Grace and Alex, the latter a member of the famed and wealthy le Domas family who have gathered from around the world to participate. Later at midnight, Alex introduces Grace to the le Domas family ritual. Every new addition to the family must pick a card from a puzzlebox and play the game indicated against the household. Usually the card names some harmless diversion, like chess or Old Maid. This time it showed Hide and Seek. Bad selection for Grace. Hide and Seek is the most dangerous game of them all. Plotwise it's extremely simple, basically an extended early Buffy episode and frankly it wasn't even as subversive against the rich as "Reptile Boy" was despite having a lot more time and freedom to play with. Really this film exists for two things, the comic tone interspersed with large amounts of incongruous gore - which I've made clear in numerous reviews is something I really find off-putting - and the interplay amongst the le Domas family. That family made this worth watching, as the numerous shifting conflicts between them and with their own selves proved interesting throughout. There had to be a certain tone to keep that going and this couldn't have been pulled off without the first rate cast this had. The writers and directors made what they wanted to make and they made it well, but it just wasn't a spejic movie and as part of the Most Dangerous Movie Series it felt like a wasted opportunity because it ended up saying less about humanity than pretty much all of them. Maybe the new sequel will do that.
The ending of Ready or Not didn't really feel like there was more story to tell, and it was an ending I didn't expect coming into the movie based on the previews, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a preview yesterday for a sequel. I may have to rewatch this one before watching the sequel.
I do agree with this, but having seen the preview I think I get where they are going. Spoiler for Ready or Not (Move your mouse to reveal the content) Spoiler for Ready or Not (open) Spoiler for Ready or Not (close) The point of a sacrifice in pagan / Old Testament times isn't the sacrifice herself, it's that the sacrificer was giving up something valuable and important to themselves. The reason it's goats is that goats were very important - close to life and death for those people. With the Hide and Seek card it's giving up a loved one. But with the new group they are not giving up anything, so I think the point is that Satan wants to have fun and sees an ironic way to wipe out his followers to I guess make room for a new bunch.
The Most Dangerous Game (2019) Against the wishes of the man who rented them the small motor boat, famed hunter Rainsford and his hunting buddy pass close to an island in the Caribbean rumored to be dangerous. Rainsford took a drunken spill off the boat and washed up on the edge of a duck pond that I guess represents the shore of the island. He finds an opulent manor occupied by Russian General Zaroff. Zaroff was able to escape the Revolution with most of his money, and has spent it traveling the world to serve his passion - hunting. But he eventually found it all too easy until he found a new and most unusual prey. Now, ready or not, Rainsford must survive three days on the island or die trying. This student film I found on YouTube demonstrates of the depth of my Most Dangerous Obsession. It also serves as the perfect example of my statement earlier that "A good director should know what they have available and use it well". David Ellis seriously wanted to rip the period lines and mentality from the pages of the original Richard Connell short story, but with sets, costumes, actors, and props that can't support it. If watching seven seasons of MacGyver taught me anything, it's first take an inventory of what you have and then figure it out from there. If you can't get an ocean beach, remove the scene or change the story. If you can't finagle a good fake beard, remove it or keep it and make a comedy. Don't get me wrong - as an amateur production made by buddies this is pretty amazing, and it actually gets better as it goes because I guess they are leaning something. But it's barely the same kind of thing as a professional movie. Except Death Ring. It's better than Death Ring.
Deadliest Prey (2013) You still need money? Colonel Hogan has just gotten out of prison after 27 years and he's reforming his mercenary army. And he's once again going to turn his soft and greedy recruits into pitiless killing machines pronto using his unique training regime - live targets. Yeah, they are mostly out-of-shape dads kidnapped from suburbs and forced into the deadliest game with nothing but their Dockers, but it's all for a greater cause. Because the next step is to grab the greying-at-the-temples Ted Prior. And they are going to hunt him live on the internet. He still seems mean enough - so mean that even without a mullet the hunt was going the other way before it even started. I'm still discovering new Most Dangerous Movies every day, but the very instant I learned there is a sequel to the absolutely bonkers 1987 Deadly Prey I flipped the channel immediately. If you are wondering how they could improve on the original, they did it by not even trying to. The same 8-bit computer game music! The same ludicrous one-liners! The same set! All the same plot points with the same characters and actors! Director David Prior knew he was making a joke based on the original movie, and he knew the only way it would work is if he played it 99.4% straight. His main change is to make it even stupider, with Prior's fighting mostly consisting of beating multiple armed soldiers by coming out the stealthiest hiding spot known to man - being just off camera. Everytime I saw a reprise of a kill from the original movie I just got giddy. Haven't had this much fun with a movie in years. I guarantee you will hate this movie if you are not intimately familiar with the original and are not on two mind-altering substances.
Detective Story (1951) Dir. William Wyler We follow a day in the life of the detectives of NYC's 21st precinct. A procession of suspected criminals are paraded into the bullpen all day long, ranging from a young woman accused of shoplifting, to a young man suspected of stealing 480 dollars from his boss, to a pair of career criminals caught red-handed in the act of stealing. The detectives themselves are an eclectic collection of lawmen themselves, some of them hardened and made somewhat cynical by their experiences, some of them surprisingly compassionate, cordial and even warm towards the suspects they are pursuing. Though none are more devoted to the job, obsessively so, as Detective James McCloud. McCloud has been pursuing a shady Doctor for the past year and is hoping to successfully charge him with crimes that day. McCloud's Lieutenant mostly wants James to do things by the book, since his determined nature, fueled by the lingering resentment he feels for his father's violent and criminal past, has led to some accusations of police brutality. It's almost weird that I had not seen this before, considering I like both 1940s and 1950s noirs and William Wyler. This is Wyler adapting a Broadway production of the same name. Wyler does not use the cinematic medium to expand the theatrical staging much, almost the entirety of this movie takes place within a single set, the 21st precinct's detective squad bullpen. It's well acted by the two principals, Kirk Douglas as James McCloud and Eleanor Parker as his wife Mary. Though my favorite cast member is character actor William Bendix, in something of a scene-stealing turn as McCloud's partner Lou Brody. Cathy O'Donnell, of Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives plays a young woman very much in love with a sympathetic thief here. And Joseph Wiseman is memorable in a scenery chewing performance as four time loser career criminal. The suspected criminals are all archetypes and are presented in such a way that the audience knows from the moment of meeting them which of them they should feel sympathy for and which are irredeemable. Lee Grant, a later academy award winner for Shampoo whose career was derailed for much of the fifties and sixties by Joe McCarthy, plays (and charms as) a young shoplifter, a cast member reprised from the original Broadway run of the play.
A Merry Little Ex-Mas - 2025 (Netflix) Kate (Alicia Silverstone) and Everett (Oliver Hudson) are divorced but spending Christmas together with their children and family. Everett's new girlfriend Tess (Jameela Jamil) joins them for Christmas while Kate gets hit on by the much younger Chet (Pierson Fode). Shenanigans follow with the kids and Everett's two dads. Meh. This could have been good, but it just kept missing the mark by a little bit. A few of the supporting characters are okay, especially Geoffrey Owens and Derek McGrath as the two dads/grandpas and Melissa Joan Hart as Kate's sister April. C-
Merrily We Roll Along (2025) d. Maria Friedman, a filming of the recent Broadway revival of legendary composer Stephen Sondheim’s only flop, which is actually pretty great. It was filmed in July 2024 over several nights. Since it was meant for the movie screen, there are a lot of close ups, which means the actors were made up for camera, not stage (I don’t care because I was at the multiplex, but if I’d shelled out for a broadway show and people’s faces were indistinguishable, I’d be pissed). Damn fine musical, well filmed. If you like Sondheim and/or musical theater, it’s in the movie theaters through next Thursday. 2 hours 30 minutes long with no intermission, so plan your beverage consumption accordingly. Incidentally, Richard Linklater is shooting a film version in real time. Given that the play progresses (backwards, which is extremely effective and powerful) over 20 years, it will be awhile before that one gets released.
A Very Jonas Christmas - 2025 (Disney+) Wut? The real Jonas Brothers are trying to get home for Christmas after their tour ends in London on December 23. Weather intervenes, travel agents (really?) try to help, and various shenanigans ensue. Sometimes it's a normal movie, sometimes it's a musical, sometimes it's borderline slapstick, and there's even some real life home video footage of the brothers as kids. Will Ferrell plays himself but several other people in similar roles (Randall Park, Billie Lourd, Chloe Bennet) play characters in the movie. I have no idea what they were really going for, but the tonal shifts and inconsistent rules about celebrities playing themselves or playing characters kept me paying attention all the way through. D+
The Long Walk (2025) Dir. Francis Lawrence In a dystopian, alternate history 20th century, the U.S. is a military dictatorship, in the aftermath of a devastating war. Many of its citizens have little hope and live lives of squalor, though there is a regular, spectacular event that provides a potential way out, for any young man willing to risk it all: The Long Walk. An gauntlet for which one young man from each U.S. state is eligible, the concept is that all fifty men will walk and keep on walking, never dropping below 3.3 miles per hour. If they stop walking they are shot, after three verbal warnings. If they walk too slow, they are shot, again after three warnings. Should they try to run or leave the road in any way, they are shot on the spot. This goes on until one man remains, who subsequently gets a fortune in money and one wish to be granted. The latter reward can be anything that does not directly impact the regime. We meet and get to know a dozen or so of the fifty as they babble, bond and bicker, their numbers ever dwindling, their desperation and physical and mental ailments ever increasing. A few among them have reasons beyond the monetary rewards to want to win the contest. Adaptation of a Stephen King novel of the same name. A book King started writing at the height of the Vietnam war and it is hard not to view the senseless deaths of dozens of young men as a not even very subtle allegory for the loss of American lives in Southeast Asia. There were aspects of this I liked a lot, others I found very silly. It's kept watchable by a good ensemble, anchored by two very good leads: Cooper Hoffman and David Johnson (who was already excellent in Alien: Romulus). Not sure if it is possible to end this story in any sort of satisfactory way, but the climax did feel kind of underwhelming after all the build-up towards the proverbial finish line.
Death Hunt (2022) A developer comes to rural Michigan to pitch a new factory complex. He's been working the mayor for a while, and is making a presentation at a town meeting. It doesn't go that well, but that's to be expected. It's part of the process. He's on his way out of town with a young woman not his wife when he decides to take a back-road to avoid the crowded interstate. Big mistake. Stopped by a local cop for what developer-guy thinks is a ticket-shakedown, instead they are both kidnapped and taken to an island 20 miles from shore. The cop and his two buddies have been hunting dangerous game here for their entire lives, like their pappies before them. What they could never imagine is that this would be the deadliest prey they have ever faced. Not bad. Fairly low budget but used it well - that is, mostly on real explosions. The actors were all quality which really elevated the feel, particularly the emotions around the land deal and the kidnapping. But it was let down by the hunt. It didn't really progress in a believable way. The big problem is one shared by some other films I've seen - a character who is physically and mentally helpless early on to gain our sympathy suddenly becomes Survivalist Commando the instant the chips are down. Out of nowhere they get brave and resourceful and skilled and they ain't got time to bleed. The story of how they become that way, or were that way before the movie started, is, well, a story, and the point of movies is to tell a story and not just have explosions. I have a similar complaint about the bad guys - there was an interesting story there too about a multi-generational most dangerous game, but we got very little.
Hunt Club (2023) Cassandra has a blow-up with her girlfriend in a diner and suddenly finds herself without a place to stay until her job starts. Fortunately seated near her is a very polite Casper Van Dien who offers her a stay at his cabin and a chance to join his hunt with a $100,000 top prize. That actually piques Cassandra's interest, and despite being older she's also getting along with Van Dien's son, who is being taken to the hunt to "become a man". At the cabin she finds lots of other groups, all men who have similarly brought in one female each. You can guess where this is going. Unfortunately for the men, Cassandra wasn't there by accident. She's here for a death hunt of her own. Due to the camera style and particularly the pink/purple filters I thought this would be a bit camp or otherwise not serious, but it was straight in a way the budget and script couldn't properly handle. It felt stretched out and the fights were so bent towards the protagonists having their moment of justice they actually felt frustrating instead of cathartic. This is actually a Violent Woman Revenge movie which are a dime-a-dozen on streaming these days, but I think that genre fits in and pleasantly subverts the Most Dangerous Game setup. Some of the men had extremely current Men's Right's speeches and it did enjoy seeing their you-know-whats you-know-whated. I like that they taught the actors proper trigger discipline - due to the long sneaking around scenes you have time to notice.