gloomyrival

After I saw this film, it left me scratching my head for a few reasons. At first, I thought it was a movie about college, since all the actors were so old and just walked in and out of classrooms at their leisure, but then I was stunned that they were suppose to be high school age. They are all obviously in their twenties and looked ridiculous as teenagers...it's like casting white people to play blacks in a movie, just as out of place and ridiculous. Next, the movie plays on it's vagueness, we don't understand the motivations behind any of these characters and the dialogue comes off as contrived and phony. Finally, for a film that was supposed to be set in the seventies, it truly fails to capture any feel for that era, it seems more modern than anything in dialogue and appearance. Not a movie that you will hate, but bland and vague enough to leave an empty feeling in your gut after viewing.

This is one of those bad Lifetime Christmas movies that sums up all the others. A mother laments the loss of her husband in an auto accident and has a son to look after...what's more Christmassy to begin with than death? Well, the ghost of her dead husband appears and guides them through hard times and to another man, who of course has money and can take care of them both. Obviously made in Canada, for what film would have the climax of the movie end in a hockey game? Forget peace on earth and goodwill to men, the message of this movie is having money and scoring goals. It's the kind of Christmas movie that tries to pull sentiment and heart out of the viewer like an enema rather than through good writing and acting. Avoid this loser.

There are many, many better Christmas movies out there to watch than this one. Mickey Rooney plays Mike Halligan, a retired New York City detective who dies before Christmas and is sent back to Earth to find an alcoholic angel and sober him up in time for Christmas to spread the Christmas cheer to the citizens of New York. Along the way, the retired detective kidnaps his grandson and is supposed to show him a real New York Christmas. The trouble is, there is nothing very Christmassy about death or New York City with no Christmas lights or decorations. Obviously filmed during the summer, this movie has no feeling for Christmas whatsoever. Scott Grimes, who plays the grandson, is a lousy actor for a kid, he can only portray a chipper, bright-eyed sparrow on the screen even when the scene calls for a deeper, emotional moment. Lots of sub-par acting and virtually no storyline make for a really bland Christmas movie that should be moving at times, but instead comes off as forced and weak. I don't understand all the high ratings for this film, it misses the mark so often and lacks any true depth of feeling in it's characters. Don't waste your time with this one, you will only be bored and disappointed I'm afraid.

This film is probably one of the worst if not the worst films to take home an Oscar. Woody Allen has made a career out of wiping his "ego" on celluloid and calling it a feature movie. It's funny how in every film of Woody Allen's, he portrays the women in it as these stupid, ditsy, uninformed containers, while he is always the all-knowing, critical, sharp-remarking, neurotic genius who has been put there to enlighten these women on the world. Of course, the relationship fails in this film, as it reflects his personal life and taste in women...Annie Hall must have been too old for his liking or possessed too much of a will or a brain. What you do get in a Woody Allen film such as this, is two hours of his crappy, shallow, dishonest diatribe that conceals the creep inside of the ego. Annie Hall feels more like a fake, constructed front for a movie rather than delving into real emotional territory, but then, we are talking about Woody Allen.

This film is an example of movie-making at it's very worst. This is what happens when you put together a bunch of pretentious, artsy, egocentric actors and director with no real script or shooting location. The movie looks like it was filmed in a high-school gymnasium and indeed I have seen better performances in high school plays than in this film. All the actors stand around and stare at each other like deer in headlights waiting to deliver their next empty-headed lines at one another. There is also a ridiculous narration in this film that reminds me of something from an Ed Wood film. The movie drizzles on for almost three hours because the people who made this are so in love with the smell of their own crap that they can't bear to flush any of it down the toilet where it belongs. Complete trash posing as an art film. To me, movies are supposed to be about effectively telling a compelling story with good acting, dialogue, and visuals. This movie has nothing, but three hours of self-indulgent rhetoric. Enough said...it's just plain awful.

I decided to watch this film because I usually enjoy the performances of such actors as John Hurt, Richard Harris, and Sean Bean. But this movie is absolutely ridiculous and so far over the top it should have been rated as a comedy masquerading as a serious drama. Richard Harris should have won some kind of an award for overacting in this film. He spends a great deal of the movie either screaming at the top of his lungs or rambling on with some ludicrous noble diatribe that I'm not sure he even knows what he's talking about. If you want to see better performances with an Irish brogue attached, try watching an Irish Spring soap commercial, much more enjoyable and watchable than this disaster of a movie. Everyone in Ireland is portrayed as the most horrible, unclean, and insensitive dregs you would ever want to meet, which one wonders why anyone would consider relocating there in this film. This film is so completely bad, I won't even mention the smiling donkey. How can anyone take this film seriously with the incredible overacting? Wow...

First of all, let me say that this is not the movie for people looking to watch something spirited and joyous for the holidays. This movie is cold, brutal, and just downright depressing. Mary Steenburgen plays a grinchy mom who is down on Christmas because her husband has lost his job, they are losing their house, can't buy Christmas presents for the kids, etc. You get the idea, happy stuff for the holidays. So along comes Harry Dean Stanton as Gideon the Christmas angel, who in his dark hat and long overcoat comes off more like a pedophile who hangs around children all day observing them. What better way to instill the spirit of Christmas in Mary Steenburgen than to kill off her family and then offer to bring them back if she believes in Christmas again. Santa Claus is a blackmailer and his Christmas workshop looks more like a haven for refugee Nazis on the lam. The movie lays everything on so thick that you don't care about the happy ending when it comes because the rest of the movie is so bitter and unbelievable. I'm sure this film wanted to be something Capra-like, but it left out the joy and sentiment on what a holiday film should be.

The latest swill from director Ridley Scott is this completely terrible movie. Russell Crowe plays a dishonest stockbroker who inherits his uncle's vineyard in France where he meets up with the usual quirky and irritating cast of local losers. Crowe is a fine actor, but in this film watching him attempt to do lame comedy is like Adam Sandler trying to do Shakespeare. The weak attempts at comedy are painful to watch, and the same redundant jokes keep being thrown at you throughout the film like a water torture, drip by drip. The acting is bad, there is not a normal moment to be had on the screen. The script is just plain awful, it feels like the actors are speaking badly written dialog rather than having conversations. Ridley Scott is well-known for his anti-American sentiments and he makes sure he gets his digs in the film about all of us stupid, no-class Americans, but yet he has no problem trying to market this terrible film in the USA. There is no redeeming quality in this film except that it will make all other films you watch look better than this lame disaster.

I try to watch this movie once a year at Christmas since it aired on television back in 1990. Mickey Rooney gives a touching performance as Elmer, an elderly homeless man who is taken in by a family at Christmas to repay them by doing chores around their house for having broken into their car previously and having taken some items. The children of the family have no grandparents and grow fond of Elmer. The movie is slow-paced at times and there are a few predictable twists to the story along the way, but it is a well-meaning and good-spirited Christmas film. I enjoy Christmas movies like this, that are not about acquiring stuff, but about the pursuit of happiness and the bonding with one another at Christmas. If you haven't seen this film, take two hours out of your life at Christmas and give it a viewing for the sentimental feeling of the holidays.

This film is contrived and awful. Tim Allen is as personable as Santa Claus as a wet piece of bread. He plays a divorced father, of course, who takes the place of Santa Claus when the real Santa is killed. Hilarious stuff. Lots of typical Disney poo-poo humor and meaningless sub-plots to fill in the vapid film. The movie relies on special effects and shallow humor to mask it's patronizing nature. If the Tim Allen character couldn't even keep his wife happy, what makes an audience think he can spread joy to the entire world as Santa Claus? Tim Allen is a horrible actor who only knows one speed, he's definitely not versatile and every sentimental scene in the movie seems false and forced. The movie may have been popular, but that does not mean that it was good. The jokes in the movie already seem dated and stale, like Michael Jackson's career, people one day will not be raving how good it was, but why in the world in the first place did they like this travesty. Bound for the rubbish bin of the 90's.

This has to be one of the worst movies of all time. M. Night Shyamalan has made a masterpiece of garbage here that will certainly be played to people in Purgatory for years to come. The plot is so thin and insulting, it's like being thirty-five years old and having someone attempting to explain the story of the Three Bears to you in detail like you are unable to grasp a single thought. Joaquin Phoenix looks pained to be in every scene, like he is wishing to collect his check and get out of this crappy film. He does a great deal of the film without speaking a word, probably to get out of having to speak the ridiculous dialogue in this movie. When they talked about the "magic rocks" I almost lost it. This is definitely one of the worst movies made by one of the worst directors. The film has less substance to it than an amoeba and drags on for two hours with a story that is so insipid that only years of psychotherapy could possibly remove it from your mind. Thumbs way down below the ground!

This is one of the best contemporary Christmas movies made. A very sincere and sweet movie, but one that won't give you tooth decay. Rebecca Harrell gives one of the most believable and intelligent performances as a young girl who nurses an injured reindeer back to health and holds the belief that the reindeer is indeed Prancer. Sam Elliot gives a strong performance as the girl's apple farmer father who has fallen on hard times and is trying to raise his kids without a mother. The rural scenery of this film is beautiful of the farms and woodlands and gives the film a real feeling of Christmas. A very simple plot fuels the movie, but it grows surprisingly darker and deeper as the film progresses and will be tugging at your heart strings by it's conclusion. Highly recommended viewing for kids and adults and all believers of Santa Claus.

This is a heart-warming Christmas movie for the entire family. Leslie Nielsen is terrific as Santa Claus. He is both engaging and benevolent as the jolly St. Nicholas. Tommy Davidson steals the scenes as the task-master elf...some of the best scenes in the movie. The movie itself is colorful and fun to watch. A charming spin on Christmas with an amnesiac Santa. The story is simple and predictable, but still is a joy to watch from beginning to end. Take my advice and set your clock back to eight years old, and just settle in on a cold winter's day and watch this movie...it will bring the spirit of Christmas back to you. Thumbs up!