Watched on Saturday December 21, 2024.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/let-my-puppets-come/1/

Watched on Saturday December 21, 2024.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/pufnstuf/1/

Simply put, my favourite Peanuts short. Is it coherent? No. Is it well animated? not particularly. But the music, tone and humour in this thing trumps pretty much every other special i’ve seen to date. I am absolutely biased about this one because I grew up with it on video tape (and now DVD) I own the soundtrack on vinyl for gods sake.

But the charm, weirdness and bewilderment this special gives off (not to mention the pure clean cut 80s ness of the whole thing) I just find utterly irrisistable. Its really something unique for the time, and I always try to find time for it whenever I can squeeze it in!

FLASHBEAGLE!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/its-flashbeagle-charlie-brown/

Watched on Saturday December 21, 2024.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/robot-in-the-family/3/

A surreal 58 minute short film, i’d seen clips from ‘The Magic Christmas Tree’ for years, but never actually had the chance to sit down and watch the thing.

Welp! Sincere thanks to the ‘Oddity Archive’ youtube channel who screened it tonight as part of their ‘Archiveland Public Domain Theater’ show. Because…well…this one is absolutely an ‘oddity’ in every sense of the word.

The film features an entirely no name cast, and follows the ‘Zots’ like misadventures of a young boy who saves a cat that transpires belongs to a witch…with it being Halloween, she feels generous and gifts the lad a magic ring with Santa clause on it, telling the boy that if he plants a wishbone in the back yard and recites the magic incantation she’ll summon a being able to grant him 3 wishes. On thanksgiving he does just that, and by christmas a magical christmas tree appears in the back yard willing to grant the lad anything he wants…shenanigans ensue.

Im going to be honest, this isnt a particularly well made film, I reference ‘Zots’ but it is essentially just that…Festive Zots, someone gets a magic ring and chaos ensues…the only difference is its the tree that grants the wishes/powers not the ring itself…the ring seemingly just acts as a kind of authenticator…

The script for this thing is a bit of a mess truthfully, opening and staying in Halloween for a significant chunk of the runtime, then jumping to thanksgiving without much rhyme or reason (its literally only done to get the wishbone from the turkey) and then suddenly its christmas eve… The kids wishes are seemingly only given to set up pre filmed segments…The host of ‘oddity archive’ described it as a ‘Home movie’ film, and thats probably the best way it *can* be described. It feels like someone shot a load of random scenes on a budget without a script, then they just…wrote a script to utilize the B-roll.

Entire plot points are just never commented on, such as the dads fight with a seemingly indestructable christmas tree…how one of the wishes the kid makes is for it to be daytime during the middle of the night, so the tree grants that wish…and NOONE says ANYTHING about how its sunny at 10pm…OR how it becomes night time again at like…8am.

A giant randomly turns up in the 3rd act without any context or reason…he just says ‘you’ve been too greedy’ and thats apparently enough pull to have him turn up…

The pacings atrocious, the tones all over the place…its a mess of a script. Not helped by lacklustre cine and direction that look and feel cheap, badly planned out and badly executed. its shot in a mixture of black and white and colour for no reason other than I assume thats all the film the producer had lying around.

They didnt have on set audio so the entire film had to be redubbed from scratch in post, which is INCREDIBLY disorienting. The cast all look ill or strange. Santa here looks like hes got a bloating condition and spends most of the time he’s on screen looking like he’s about to pop.

the soundtracks irritating and scratchy. Look…this is EXACTLY the kind of movie you’d think it would be. and I imagine it would pair up WONDERFULLY as a good B-picture ahead of something like ‘Santa Clause vs The Devil’ or ‘Santa Clause Conqours the Martians’…But on its own? it feels like a cheap appitizer and not much else. like…you can ENJOY a cheap appitizer…but that doesnt necissarily mean you’ll be happy when you find the main and dessert arnt coming…

Fun enough, if you like your schlock I’d say definitely try and check it out at least once…but I dont know if it has the clout to survive more than a watch and maybe one more rewatch honestly…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/magic-christmas-tree/

My partner recently has been keen to try and get me to watch more movies that are classed as ‘common shared experiences’ that somehow passed me by, and with this being the festive season, that can only mean one thing…The Muppets Christmas Carol.

I had seen grabs of this film over the years, my cousins grabbed it when it first came out on VHS and I saw a chunk of it then, I saw clips of it over the years and thought it looked fine enough. But the fact I hadnt actually seen the whole thing from beginning to end before made my partner recoil in horror as it was pretty much an annual tradition in their household when it first came out (Though, she still maintains that ‘Muppets Treasure Island’ is in fact, the best Muppets movie…A fact I find hard to dispute.)

And so, ‘The Muppets Christmas Carol’! an adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel but slightly more sanitized for children and much MUCH more Muppity! and…its actually pretty good fun! I dont think its *quite* as good as the Alistair Simm version for my money, but I really enjoyed this retelling.

The muppets humour, I initially thought would be quite jarring, actually gels remarkably well here. With some great aside gags and subtle multi layer bits amid some surprisingly toned down chaos given the Muppets remit.

We watched the ‘Full’ cut of the film with a deleted song and scene or two readded in, and I think that really helps the flow of the production (clocking in at 89 minutes) Having not seen the more widely available cut, I cant comment comparitively. But having seen this, I feel like it hits most of the key points pretty spot on, and it flows between the acts effortlessly and enjoyably.

The direction work is rock solid, surprisingly probably one of the best looking adaptations of a christmas carol from a visual aspect, the cast/muppet direction is near perfect with some fantastic placements and some near perfect dialogue drops really pushing this thing up.

The cine too is a real step up too, with some striking and memorable compositional choices, strong colour use and incredible effects for the time (the fade up to white transition effect to allow for scene changes in the christmas past segment is a personal favourite) its incredible really how they were able to really bring the muppets (full body) to life in this one. Though, I do feel the ghost of christmas past puppet from this film will live on in my nightmares for the foreseeable.

The editing is rock solid, no complaints from me, it really seems to fully understand the assignment.

In fact, the only issue I have is with the performance of Scrooge himself. Not to diss Michael *one punch* Caine here…his performance as the Miser is superb…when he’s BEING miserly… during that time he comes across as wonderfully cold, and slowly warms emotion into his physical performance and delivery. I cant fault him there…no, I have a problem with his ‘good scrooge’ performance. Problem for me is, I just didnt fully go with him on how he chose to play it.

For me? I feel like the ‘revelation’ final act for scrooge should bring with it a layer of giddy mania, the idea that he’s just been struck by the bolt of lightning resolve that he’s going to be good, the possibilities that brings with it and the fact that the future is very much in his hands. I feel like a performance like that requires a ‘racing thoughts’ type play. i want my scrooge bouncing off the walls, dancing down the street and alive behind the eyes with the feeling that he still has time and world to make his own…

Caine…for me, doesnt deliver that. He still looks fairly dead eyed for most of the big closer and having a bit of a pep in his step and a slight smile isnt convincing me of anything, letalone the power of 3 hauntings and a dead child having hit him like a freight train. His performance in that finale screams ‘yay…christmas.’ and not ‘OH MY GOD! IM A CHANGED MAN! THE WORLD IS INCREDIBLE AND I LOVE EVERYTHING!!!’

And thats a shame, because it does rather leave a subdued ending on my plate, and not one that really won me over…Also; WHO in their right mind decided to give MICHAEL *Jellied Eeels/My old mans a dustman’ CAINE. a musical number?! jesus…

In either case, despite Caines final play and the fact the script does sand off some of the harsher edges of the christmas carol novel, I still had a really good time with this most muppity festive offering. I absolutely would watch it again, I think its very likely going to wind up in my ‘top 3’ adaptations of Dickens famous work. and god bless us everyone!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-muppet-christmas-carol/

1963-1970 Was kind of the ‘Wild West’ of ‘Doctor Who’ (The famous british science fiction TV programme about a mad alien with a shapeshifting time travelling box who rocks up on alien worlds, fights tyranny with intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism and then heads off to the next adventure)

See, the show was a little slow going in establishing its own lore, with the concept of regeneration (initially known as ‘renewal’) not existing until 1966, the Doctors race being named ‘The Time Lords’ not existing until 1969, and the doctors homeworld ‘Gallifrey’ not being named until 1972. You would think these would be more up front reveals. But the show was far to busy having fun and messing with the audience over the years to really bother with lore. ‘Lore is for big walleys’ as Terrence Dicks once famously quipped.

But in 1964/65 two things were certain, ‘Doctor Who’ as a show was a phenominon that captured the nations youth, and the biggest threat to the galaxy…were ‘The Daleks’.

The ancient pepperpots have been around now for well over 60 years, but their history (and more importantly, their copyright status) even to this day, is murky to say the least.

This is because the Daleks were created by Terry Nation, who ensured via negotiations with the BBC that the rights to the Daleks as creatures/designs and all of the stories that Nation would pen for the series between 1964 and 1975 were his to own and do what he pleased with.

So, when the opportunity to make a big screen outing for the timelord presented itself (via unscrupulous means I might add) Nations eyes turned into dollar signs, and the guy handed the reigns to the worlds first ‘Doctor who’ movie over to two chaps who, at best, had maybe half watched half an episode of one of the poorer William Hartnell era episodes.

Nation leased the rights out to adapt the Daleks first outing (Titled: ‘The Daleks’) to the big screen…But due to not wanting to step on the BBC’s toes in doing this deal, a number of things had to be changed/tweaked from the original show to make it work.

I realise im getting quite fact heavy in this review, but please do bear with me, its kind of important.

So ‘Doctor who’ the TV series, by this point in time had been running for around 2 and a bit years. William Hartnell played the first on screen incarnation of the Doctor alongside the doctors Grandaughter Susan (a 15 year old played by Carol Anne Ford). The story explains that while attending a human school in the 1960s, Susans teachers Ian and Barbara become concerned that shes acting a bit *too* odd for a teen girl of that time…So they follow her back to a junkyard, where its revealed the doctor has a time machine, he traps Ian and Barabara inside, and most of the first season is based around the doctor (half heartedly) trying to get ian and Barbara back to 1963, having many adventures along the way (Including ‘The Daleks’)

THIS adaptation of the story is set on earth in 1964/65 as we are introduced to the VERY much human ‘Dr. Who’ (Im not joking…his last name is ‘Who’ and he is a ‘Dr.’) a somewhat eccentric, but warm grandfather figure who is currently sharing a house with his two daughters ‘Barbara’ and ‘Suzie’.

While whiling away the hours reading advanced physics books (and comics) we’re then introduced to Barbaras boyfriend, Ian. whos basically just doing a half hearted dick van dyke impression for most fo the runtime.

While waiting for Barabara to get ready to go on a date, ‘Dr. Who’ decides to take Ian into the back garden to show him his greatest invention to date…’TARDIS’ (not THE Tardis…just…TARDIS…) a time/space travel machine that ‘Dr. Who’ himself has built out of bits of string and tiny pieces of eggshell seemingly…Naturally the entire gang wind up inside TARDIS, Ian falls on the ‘GO’ lever…and they wind up on a mysterious alien planet thats been largely petrified.

And what follows is a VERY truncated adaptation of the original BBC serial, which ran for 7 episodes between 1963 and 1964 totalling just shy of 3 hours of television. I mention this because the films FULL runtime is 76 minutes. with a good chunk of that going into opening titles and credits.

And thats kind of the crux of the issue this film has really…the original television serial (in my opinion) was ABSOLUTELY over long, flabby and EXTREMELY repetative…the core idea is decently solid, but its largely a runaround with a few good moments sprinkled throughout.

The film adaptation however? goes WAY too far in the other direction, oversimplifying the story into a MASSIVE hodge podge of bizarre and confusing key plot beats that have basically just been hot glue gunned together without ANY thought for continuity, pacing or storytelling.

There are multiple points in this film where the plot holes are significant enough (and glaring enough) to pull you clean out of the action, key scenes in the TV series are just wholesale lifted into this version, but without the adaptation required to make it make sense. The original televised serial was quite literally an alagory for the nazi movement, with the Thals playing the part of the persecuted minority and a (somewhat heavy handed) but fairly well balanced take on racism.

This movie dumbs that down to ‘Daleks = Bad, Thals = good’ and the entire racism/nazi comparison is airlocked pretty quickly. a key scene in which Ian tries to coax the thals into fighting back against their abusers, in the TV series, is a fairly blunt, but well executed shorthand for ‘stand for something or fall for anything’ in this movie, that same scene is played with NON of the context applied meaning a largely pacifistic race of people just suddenly turn into Sylvester Stallone in ‘Cliffhanger’.

The characters are streamlined down to the basest of elements. Ian, Barara and Susan in the TV series have depth, warmth, character. They can be complex, have feelings that go against the grain and we learn to warm to them as they express their humanity (or in susans case, wanting of humanity and belonging) over the various adventures we go on with them. Hell, even ‘The Doctor’ in the TV series starts as a grumpy and border sociopathic alien figure, but over time, softens into a still quite grumpy, but ultimately lovable figure.

Here? ‘Dr. Who’ is an abscent minded professor type who just basically says whatever comes to mind and bumbles around looking for solutions to random problems. Ian is prat falling all over the place and has ZERO character beyond playing a ‘dummy dumb dumb’, Suzie is a precocious child genius and nothing else, and Barbaras personality here is SO thin, I actually forgot she was even in the movie, as she only really has 2 scenes of relevence and note, and the rest of the time she just sits in the background.

The pacing is jagged and uneven, the tone is weird and offputting, it feels like ‘Home brand’ doctor who…and worse still, ‘Home brand’ doctor who that doesnt really understand why the show was successful.

The key selling point of the movie is of course the Daleks themselves, who get a very lavish redesign, but even with the full push of the Nation estate behind them, even they dont escape unscathed, their voices here, while easily identifyable, are slow and sluggish. making short scenes in the TV version PAINFULLY long in the movie redux. While I personally loved the redesign, they dont really get to do a whole lot here, and the decision to replace their ‘extermination’ gun ray effects with just a ploom of smoke I feel really knocks them down in terms of how menacing they can be.

What DOES save this film however is the direction and cine, which is rock solid, with previously ‘broom cupboard’ sized sets, being replaced with grand soundstages, lavish neuvo art deco set designs and a real sense of scale to proceedings. the knock on effect is that the actual props themselves look BEYOND cheap and poor quality. But for grandness, this one cant be faulted honestly.

Compositions are distinct, vibrant and decently experimental, particularly with the Dalek form. we have a pretty coherent production visually, even if the script fails to match it in quality.

The edit is a bit all over the place, not *quite* incoherent, but certainly heading that way. cuts are a bit scattershot and there are moments where shots are either WAY too brief or WAY too long before the cut mark. which is a real shame. it feels rushed, and very much in need of one more pass to tighten it up.

As for the performances? Peter Cushings ‘Dr. Who’ is unrecognizable. the man transforms into the role and it took me at least a couple of watches to realise that he actually was THE Peter Cushing and not just some random actor CALLED Peter Cushing. I feel like he nails the brief of what was asked of him, giving a very sincere, if not a tad doddery performance. The problem is, the brief that was provided to him was VERY much against how the character ACTUALLY should be. In short, he’s fine. Its the script thats wrong.

I actually feel sorry for the supporting cast in this, who’ve been transformed from meaty, somewhat interesting characters into NPC’s for most of the runtime. flat, dull, lifeless…they did nothing for me…The dalek operators certainly add a menace to proceeding. but that delivery is just SO jittery…it really quite put me off.

The score by contrast is fun, light and engaging…Though, it really doesnt say ‘Doctor Who’ to me…it says more ‘Generic early 60s sci fi movie’ like…its quality…but it feels ill fitting in these circumstances.

The first Doctor who movie is a bit of a minefield honestly, while I enjoyed seeing an alternate take on the TV series. the idea with reinventing a character is to try and take them off in an interesting and new direction…Something this production really quite fails to do.

Its a fine enough generic sci fi flick, something to happily kill 70+ minutes…But I feel like this had the potential to have been SO much better than what we ended up with. As it stands its very much ‘Nice video, shame about the song’ pretty…but lacking the spark that really makes me love it.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dr-who-and-the-daleks/

Caught the MST3K ‘riffed’ version tonight given the season, and its about as daffy as it ever was. I think the riffing absolutely helps add enough to the film to make it significantly more watchable. without it, the whole movie seems almost ‘fever dream’ esq…elongated scenes of weird WEIRD dialogue delivery choices and other oddities…this is a strange and not particularly well made movie…I have the unriffed version on my shelf and will likely review that one more in depth in future…But for now, I can say the MST version IS better than the unriffed version…But yeh…this is only a click or so off ‘Fun in Balloon Land’ level weirdness.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/santa-claus-1959/

Well, a storm hit the UK today knocking my Internet out, and given my entire physical media collection (and player) are still boxed up due to a recent move I was stuck watching live TV tonight. And I timed it perfectly to catch ‘Die Hard’

Honestly not much to say that hasn’t been said already, it’s a much loved action thriller that’s deservedly praised for having a nice level of self awareness and charisma about itself, without fully going all in on the tropes that defined 80s action movies.

Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman absolutely delight across the runtime, it looks great, it’s written well, and the supporting cast understand the assignment.

The only solid criticism I have for it, is the first act is a bit lumpy and slow going. Great moments, just unevenly paced and it falters a bit until the heist actually starts going. But from there on in, it becomes a riot…quite literally.

As for the debate as to whether its a Christmas film or not? I’m honestly still on the fence. It’s a film that relishes the fact its a film set on Christmas eve and embraces Christmas music and the day itself for self aware snarkery (which is very much appreciated) however, the core themes and values one would associate with a ‘christmas’ movies are absolutely absent. If it wasn’t for the film itself reminding the audience that the film took place around christmas time, we’d really be non the wiser.

My gut tells me this is an unconventional christmas movie, but it IS a christmas movie…that being said, you won’t find it in MY top 5 christmas films anytime soon because of its lack of actual festivities barring puns, graffiti and a few choice needle drops…you guys do what you want is where I’m at with this one.

Great film, would recommend catching at least once. Yippie kai yay

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/die-hard/

Watched on Friday December 6, 2024.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/elf/1/