The penultimate edition of the ‘Hey Folks!’ Series and it’s still overall pretty enjoyable. A good solid range of intermission ads are on here, but by this point there is a LOT of repetition of intermission ads with *slight* regional variations. If your watching for new stuff, you’ll be dissapointed, but if your here solely for the vibe, you’ll probably get along fine with this one as much as previous entries…

Oh…also, this one ends with about 10-15 minutes of random countdown title cards that were seen in previous editions and a final 5 minutes of just slowly tracked photographs with incidental music. Which was a bit of a shame, as, while it wasn’t something featured on the other sets…it did very much feel like an attempt to pad the runtime to get it in line with the other volumes…

Like I say, this isn’t a bad entry at all…its just not my favourite.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hey-folks-its-intermission-time-vol-5/

Six years after the original ‘A Thousand and One Erotic Nights’ Some absolute maverick decided that a sequal was all but inevitable? Im not entirely sure WHY they did what they did…But..they did! and its pretty much as bad as you can imagine.

So…lets get the best net plus from this film out of the way up front! theres not as MUCH ‘Brown-face’ in this film as the original! there is still a couple instances of it, but hey! at least they’re making the concious effort to be at least a *little* bit less racist…right!?…right?….

Thats where the good news begins and ends. As this films essentially simultaineously a prequel, and a retcon of the original film. Taking place before the events of ‘A Thousand and One Erotic Nights’ But airlocking the subplot about the Sultans wife cheating and him deciding to strangle his harem on a nightly basis.

Instead; this film takes place in the past, and deals with a period of time where sex was outlawed in the kingdom because the Sultan was struggling to get aroused by anything. So, his personal assistant holds a contest in the kingdom to find the right woman to give the Sultan his Mojo back.

And…thats basically the bulk of the film, on a single ‘white void with a palm tree’ set, women engage in sexual activity in front of the Sultans staff, and eventually 3 of them get chosen…and then its whittled down to one. Thats the movie. theres very brief linking narrations to set up each sex scene. But its basically just sex scene after sex scene with very little real meat to hold things together.

The scripts paper thin, the pacings repetative and quite boring, the films leaning HARD into comedy…but its cringey cartoony style comedy which really frustrates the mood the films trying to set for itself. It cant decide on a tone, so it just decides to do whatever it wants in between the sex scenes.

The direction itself is flat, fairly lifeless. The film has an oral fixation for most of the runtime, which basically translates on screen to 95% of the shots being varients on closeups of the cast doing the do…with no real scene structuring or engaging choreography to help sell the scenes. It’s mechanical, it feels cold quite honestly.

The edit is sluggish and repetative as well, long shots cutting between a 2 cam setup is about as good as this thing gets, its a dead behind the eyes production that really fails to deliver on much of anything it promises.

The ONE thing that really made the last film just about rise to a standard was the quality of the set design and some of the transitions between scenes. No such luck with that here, were basically down to a couple of cardboard 3 wall sets and a white void scene. The films so cheap it couldnt even affoard new stock footage, and instead just nicks the stock footage from the first film, DIRECTLY FROM the first film.

The performances are cheesy, awkward and unarousing. The physicality is missing any kind of naturalism. its underwhelming at best, and downright boring at worst.

This HAD to be a cash in. Theres no other way it could have been anything else. and a dire one at that. definitely one to avoid.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/a-thousand-and-one-erotic-nights-part-ii-the-forbidden-tales/

Hot off the heels of ‘Reanimator’ Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna ran with the momentum built up from their previous picture straight into another Lovecraftian tale, and the results are ‘From Beyond’. A nightmarish tale of ‘the other’ shown in the kind of disgustingly fascinating way that only the combo of Gordon and Yuzna really can pull out of these kinds of productions.

The plot follows Dr. Crawford Tillinghast, a physics professor working alongside one Dr. Edward Pretorius. A renowened physisist who believes that we as beings are simply a single visible layer of a multi dimensional existence. We can only see our layer (humans, animals etc…) and each other respective layer around us is trapped within their own confines…BUT! By stimulating the pineal gland (drink every time THAT glands mentioned…) you can open a theoretical ‘3rd eye’ that’ll allow you to see into the layer adjacent to ours…and the horrifying beings that lie beyond.

Naturally, their first full trial on this results in Pretorius being decapitated and Crawford desperately and horrifyingly trying to convince a group of doctors that he DIDNT murder his mentor, and that there REALLY IS sentient life existing in the same space as us, just on a different layer of reality. Naturally, he’s committed.

Its only when one Dr. Katherine McMichaels enters the scene, that she decides to take Crawford at his word, asking for him to be released into her care and under the supervision of one detective Bubba Brownlee. McMichaels returns Crawford back to the house where the experiments took place, in part in an attempt to get him to relive what she believes was a murder, so that she can finally write him off as a crank, and in part to better understand the Penial studies that Dr. Pretorius was researching.

As you can imagine, both McMichaels and Brownlee are astounded to discover that Crawford WASNT making it up, and after firing up the machine to prove his theories, the pair are now won over that we are not alone on this dimensional plain…Unfortunately revving up the machine brings with it a terrible consiquence, as; on the other side of the void, Dr. Pretorius lives, and has taken on a new form in line with that dimensions reality…and with it he brings untold horrors beyond our comprehension.

This reviews going to be a bit of a love in, because really, theres very little I disliked about this one, The script is wonderfully dark, acidic has a nice bleakness to it which is married up to a thin but much needed layer of campy comedy, the characters are all really well rounded, the story is compelling, interesting and unique. the dialogues delectable and it ends about as well as it could end.

My only mild gripe here honestly is with the pacing, and in particular; the pacing in the 3rd act. The film opens VERY strong reminding me of ‘The Asphyx’ (1972) as we set up our characters, scenarios and locations, its a masterstroke work form Gordon and Yuzna because it tells you enough to get on board, but not enough to make you feel truely comfortable with whats going on.

The second act runs with that momentum, but there is a feeling that things are beginning to bed in a little bit. A big thing with movies like this is that, the ‘Unknown’ is the seller of the picture. The more you know about the ‘Unknown’ the less scary/interesting the film becomes and the more it turns into a technical exercise. I feel like they manage to keep *enough* of the other dimension here a secret to still give it a real sense of mystery…But at the same time, they do let enough go here that I started to feel comfortable. Which for movies like this? isnt good.

SO! they throw in a 3rd act curve ball and move the action to a different location. And its at that point that I think the film kind of frustratingly blows its stack. the pacing really slows down as we have some extensive dialogue segments which try to rationalise to the existing characters something we already really know as viewers. theres a lot of shots of people semi unconcious or tied to beds which I feel drag, and the immediate ‘threat’ thats present in the 3rd act is a bit of a damp squib for me. Personally, i’d have really trunkated those scenes to help keep the pacing nice and tight, but I appreciate this thing was already running to a borderline feature runtime at an hour and 26…So I cant be too hard on it. In either case once the action moves back to the core location, things get back into a decent groove and it ends strong…So…imperfect, but solid is probably a good thing here…

As for the direction and cine? its rock solid here. No complaints at all from me, it has ‘Empire Picture’ vibes running through it like a name through a stick of rock. its vivid, colourful has a sharp and focussed creative vision at the healm, its probably one of the best shot 80s US horror movies. and I dont make that asertion lightly.

Gordon seems to know exactly what to show, and how often to show it. and the end result is a film that left me desperately wanting more, but knowing it’ll forever be unknown. Composition work is strong. I was stunned to find out that ‘Screaming’ mad george wasnt behind the prosthetics on this one, as the special effects work is truely astounding for its time. theres a stylish use of purples and blues throughout, and the sequence building is procise, curated and carefully managed. It could well be both Yuznas and Gordons ‘Masterpiece’.

The performances are top tier too, Jeffery Combs as Crawford is astoundingly well handled, I love most films Combs turns up in, but here he gives a full and well rounded performance delivered with FULL and total conviction. I would argue given all the various effects makeup he had to go through in this film, that it was likely the performance of his career. He’s superb in this.

Offsetting Combs’ sometimes neurotic performance we have a fun appearence from Ken Foree playing Bubba, he’s clearly here either because he liked the absurdity of the script, they were paying well, or both. Because his perforamnce here is a ‘kid in a candy shop’ vibe that doesnt relent for the full runtime. You can clearly tell he’s enjoying his time on set. and he brings some much needed levity and ‘coolness’ to the films organized chaos.

Balancing the duo and completing the trio Barbara Crampton as Katherine ping pongs between the two styles, attempting to remain cool, calm and collected in the face of the unknown, while simultaineously succumbing to its overwhelming drives and compulsions. She gets some of the best scenes in this movie, comes across as believable and is the final piece of the puzzle that makes this film as good as it is. And im not just saying that because she spends a significant chunk of the films runtime in a leather dominatrix outfit.

I have a bit of an issue with Empire/Full Moon film scores. I find they all sound very samey. So my feedback here isnt going to be particularly insightful. But the best enthusiasm I can muster for it is ‘Its appropriate for this kind of film, but it absolutely could have been better’ It punctuates the film about right…But I feel ‘Reanimator’ had the right idea in giving the film a very distinct and powerful score…This…felt a little genric.

I had a really good time with ‘From Beyond’ its a group of people who’ve clearly learnt and grown their craft over some years now presenting what many I feel wouldnt argue is their ‘peak’ work. Definitely worth checking out, I had a really good time with this one. and when paird up with something like ‘Reanimator’ I think you’d have the ‘left/right’ hook you and your friends would need for a HELL of a movie night.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/from-beyond/

In a way, im kind of glad that the boutique labels have been slowly releasing these older Adult features, as they’re a rich history of an aspect of society that isnt often talked about in very much detail. Sex and pornography at the time and increasingly in modern times are often ‘hushed’ topics that seem to bring awkward shuffling in seats and arguements about ‘what their point is?’ from some subsections of society. while modern adult entertainment has its own debates, i’ve found it fascinating exploring these older titles and seeing how tastes and styles have changed over the decades.

‘A Thousand and One Erotic Nights’ is a perfect example of a film that ABSOLUTELY wouldnt and couldnt have been made any later than 1982. I personally didnt really get on with this film for a few reasons. It’s essentially a ‘sexy’ reimagining of the ‘1001 nights’ fairytail series. It boasts on the poster to be the ‘first million dollar adult extravaganza’ and let me tell you, those 2 sets they have REALLY pop for that money (okay…thats a bit of an exaggeration…but my point still stands).

So…there’s no way to broach this subject lightly…theres a LOT of ‘Brown-face’ in this thing…and I mean, A LOT. I think theres maybe two genuinely asian actors in this production and 2 maybe 3 cast members who clearly refused to do it, the rest are in makeup, and while they DO manage to stop short of doing ‘comedy’ middle eastern accents. They DO speak in broken English (with an american accent) for a good chunk of the runtime.

I found that very problematic personally, and apart from the fact that it was INCREDIBLY distracting because, these are some of the WHITEST actors i’ve seen on screen trying to play non white people. the ACTUAL asian actors on set are ALSO basically playing hopped up charicatures of there respective cultures…

Thats before we even GET to the plot. Which in and of itself is rife with issues. Its been a LONG time since I read ‘1001 Nights’, but the key beats from the overhanging story form the book have more or less been transplanted into an adult film context here…but amped up a little…because y’know…sex.

In THIS rendition of the classic, a Sultan finds out his wife has been cheating on him with multiple men and decides to create a new rule for his harem to dissuade disloyalty. Every night he’ll pick a member of his harem, sleep with her, and then hang her in the morning so she cant betray him, and to send a message to the other girls to stay loyal.

However, on his first night he picks a 19 year old who was traded into his harem, who has only one skill. Storytelling, and so, every night for 1001 nights, she regails the sultan with a new tail, always ending on a cliffhanger that branches into a new story the next night.

This is of course a free pass for the film to do a ‘sexy’ anthology series. and on its technical ability is pretty much where this film earns most of its good points from me.

The actual script itself is pretty pacy, its an hour and 26 and feels shorter. the act structuring just about sits right, the balance between plot lines and sex scenes is a little sex heavy for me personally. But not to the films overall detriment. Theres some variety on the scenes present here, but it is a little heavy on Girl/Girl stuff…which is fine, but they dont really shake up the cinematography between scenes…So there were moments where I thought my film had skipped out.

Tonally, the films a bit all over the place, dealing with very bleak subjects at times, but also veering into border parody with some of the ‘Characters’ introduced across the runtime. The dialogues also kind of poor, mainly because, as mentioned…it’s trying to do the whole ‘broken English’ thing to make it sound foreign…when the ACTUAL deliveries are just in plain English. It sounds weird.

The direction is technically on the level, if the claims that this is the first million dollar adult feature are true, I am genuinely at a loss as to where that money went. Because collectively I counted maybe 4 locations (essentially the same set redressed 4 times) and a possible location shoot. The sets are all very nicely furnished. But it’s somewhat tarnished by the fact that 90% of the cast are dressed in costumes clearly from a fancy dress shop, or from whatever ‘wardrobe’ had free in the dumpster round the back that day.

There is absolutely a creative flair present here and the film does look fairly professionally presentable. But the sex scenes do suffer quite a bit here because the director and cinematographer seem VERY focussed on jsut making everything a closeup or mid closeup. I personally always champion an erotic film getting a decent set of close ups, but you need some wides and midwides to really help break up the flow, to add context, to help the audience take in the ambience of the scene…just showing a curated series of shots of random gyrations is quite literally about as ‘erotic’ as it sounds…

The performances are largely poor. I dont think theres a single standout ‘good’ performance here…but PLENTY of bad ones, make NO mistake.

and the soundtrack does have a grand feeling to it, which VERY much helps to set the tone and scene. But its just not enough to really get this one over the line for me.

The majority of my rating for this one stems from its technical ability. Honestly; I cant really fault the cine, scoring, *MOST* of the set designs and the direction (with noted issues with the sex scenes raised here) But the scripts VERY dated as of the year 2024, the brown face stuff is pretty unforgivable and the perforamances range from ‘barely passable’ to ‘dire’.

This one wasnt for me, and I dont think I can recommend it personally…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/a-thousand-and-one-erotic-nights/

In 1984 Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘The Cotton Club’ hit the big screens and brought tales of gangsters and the roaring 20s back to the public conciousness…Well; in 1985 ‘Trashy Lady’ would hit the market, clearly looking to try and mop up some of those people who got a little *too* enthused by the 20’s aesthetic.

The film stars Harry Reems as ‘Dutch’ a local mobster just trying to keep the day to day turf control at the top of his agenda…But he has a problem, after playing the old ‘Carefree horndog’ routine one time too many, his old lady has hit the bricks looking for a better life, leaving Dutch one vacancy for a dishy sidepiece! Enter Catherine (Ginger Lynn) an out of towner looking to set up shop in Dutches terratory. And after a brief chat (and a rename to ‘Kitty’ because Dutch prefers it) Kitty is The new Mrs. Dutch.

But therein lies another problem, Kitty is a ‘Lady’ and as such, she doesnt drink or smoke and only has VERY limited sexual experience. So! Dutch drafts in ‘Rita’ (Amber Lynn) the partner of the infamous Louie, a mobster currently serving time. Rita is notoriously a ‘Trashy Lady’ and Dutch wants her to teach Kitty how to be equally Trashy, but when word hits Louie that Ritas been travelling to Dutches apartment every day and staying there ALL day, Louie decides he doesnt want Dutch embarrassing him and a hits put out.

And this films actually a pretty open and shut case. as far as it being an adult feature goes, it does what it does fairly well. Theres a good mixture of sex scenes, the composition of the shots is handled proficiently the direction isnt exactly “strong” but more than gets the job done and isnt afraid to experiment a little bit.

The edits tight, I feel like they get the plot to sex scene ratio pretty bang on, the pacings pretty solid, at an hour and 25 it zips along pretty nicely…

My only issue with it really is the charactarization. The cast are kind of forced into putting on strong silly accents and the dialogues literally almost all filler, just stuff to get you to the next scene. And while I can handle a little bit of that kind of stuff outside of ‘parody’ terratory. When the film is largely trying to come across as fairly ‘straight laced’ it made the bad accents feel VERY cringey.

I feel like had it ‘committed’ more and just been a full on parody of ‘The Cotton Club’ and other 20’s and 30s set features…I probably would have gotten on with it a bit better. As it stands, the script feels very one note and rushed, it doesnt really embrace the era on a story level (its all visuals really) and as such It just ends up coming across as a bit awkward, like the cast arnt entirely sure if they’re supposed to be playing it straight, comedically or knowingly dry. As such, everyone has a swing at one of the styles and it just ends up a bit messy as a result.

OH! and theres also some moments where the sets look VERY flimsey. theres a scene in a bar near the beginning where one of the cast leans on whats (supposed) to be a metal railing…and it bends…so the guy has to gently hover on it for most of the scene.

A lot of the 20’s penthouse suites are clearly just 3 wall 80s bedroom sets with wall lights mounted on them and vintage furnature and items haphazardly thrown around. and I noticed AT LEAST two instances where they’d clearly bought 80s catalogue furnature and (badly) painted them with 20s art deco stylings to make them look older than they are. But they didnt have enough money for paint, because it looks like they only did one coat on most of the ‘upcycles’

That combined with the fact that there isnt really anything ‘new’ or interesting on show with this film really kind of holds it back from going to the next level…As it stands, this is just a pretty sturdy mid-level feature that meets its brief, nothing more, nothing less. Which is simultaineously its biggest asset, and its biggest problem.

I kind of wished theyd gone the extra mile, as theres definitely potential for a fun movie here…but as it stands…I was just kind of left feeling ‘Meh’.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/trashy-lady/

Had the absolute luck of catching this tonight as part of the DMP Cinema special screenings. I’ve not much more to add that wasnt already rasied in my initial review for this film, I Consider it to be the best of the ‘Of the Dead’ films…

My only overhanging thought with this one was that, while watching it in a theatrical environment was really cool. I believe they sourced the screening copy for the viewing from the old Arrow bluray remaster which was released nearly 15 years ago (2010!) While its still LIGHTYEARS better than the DVD and VHS copies we had before it, the remaster is starting to creak a little in the face of 4k restorations and better compression techniques…Its not so noticable on the small screen, but you could tell the resolution wasnt *quite* as sharp as it could have been had this been a 4k print.

That being said, I believe theres an issue sourcing the original negative for this one, so we may have a while yet to wait for an upgrade. And absolutely no shade to DMP who’ve knocked it out of the park this year so far with some excellent screenings!

So yeh! great film, definitely recommended, but is ACHING for that 4k treatment for sure!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/day-of-the-dead/1/

Watched on Sunday May 5, 2024.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-wicker-man/4/

I was sent a copy of ‘The Tangerine Bear’ from my good buddy in the states ‘Triv’ of ‘Trivial Theater’. She rescued it from a dollar bin, and honestly. if you’ve seen or read ‘The Tangerine Bear’ thats probably the most fitting story of how it arrived in my film collection that it’s possible to have.

Its a 48 minute special from 1999 adapted from the book ‘The Tangerine bear’ initially published in 1997, and tells the story of ‘Bear’ a teddy bear who ends up in an accident at the bear manufacturing plant where he inadvertently ends up with his smile stitched on upside down.

After having it drilled into bear that he needs to ‘find a family’ in order to have a happy life, he’s disheartened when he arrives in a big toystore and noone wants him, he eventually winds up on the ‘clearence’ table where he realises that he’s got a frown where a smile should be, but he’s chipper resolving that he’s ‘Smiling on the inside’ and that the right family will see that in him and pick him up…They dont. In fact, the entire rest of the clearence table more or less sells, before he’s bundled into a trunk and sent to ‘Winkles Emporium’ a 2nd hand/defect shop where the clearence stuff goes and Mr. Winkle fixes what he can before selling it on at a ‘Name your price’ fire sale.

‘Bear’ here meets Jack (a jack in the box) Vernon (a bull dog who acts as security) Bird (a damaged coo-coo clock, and Lorelei (a mermaid with a clock on her belly). and we enter a slow but warming period of bonding between the characters as they discuss tips on how to be sold, and they try to figure out their place in the world.

And, while this one does open a little haphazardly, and is a little imperfect. I personally quite enjoyed this one. I think at 48 minutes this ones kind of breezy, it definitely could run shorter. But I didnt mind the length particularly and the pacing is pretty breakneck for what is supposed to be a young kids christmas movie. Tonally its upbeat, charming and has a really strong message about being yourself and finding your purpose and family from within yourself, rather than trying to fit in other peoples boxes or aspire to someone elses goals.

It is however a film thats not without its problems. The opening act is a little overly generic, and it takes quite a bit of time to get to ‘Winkles Emporium’ which is basically where the film starts proper…Which isnt great, especially for a kids movie, where you really dont want to overcomplicate things or take a while to get started (attention spans and all that)

The scene in ‘Krolls department store’ with the clearence toys felt a bit out of place as well…Generally in the first act, you want to take your time to establish the characters your going to spend the rest of the movie with. Here we’re introduced to Louie (a blue monkey) and Dolly (…a doll…I…dont know why shes in clearence…they dont say what her defect is…) But seemingly they introduce these characters just to establish that Bear HAS a physical defect and to set up the idea of rejected toys…when it probably would have made much more narrative sense to just have bear go to ‘Winkles’ immediately after not selling, and then have Jack and co more warmly introduce the idea that Bear is ‘perfectly imperfect’.

The film does have some pacing issues around its musical numbers too. It cant seem to decide if it wants to be a musical number or not. We get 2-3 numbers in the opening 10-15 minutes of the film, and another 2-3 in the last 10-15 minutes. But the middle of the film is a gulf of pure story…Which did throw me a bit, because RIGHT as I started wondering if this WAS intending to be a musical film or not, they then kicked back in with the music stuff.

And probably the most glaring issue this film had for me really was the frankly bizarre decision to mix animation styles across the full runtime, with some characters having a rather simple ‘line drawing’ style appearence, and others looking like semi-nightmarish Phillips CD-i creations with a smoother frame rate. They shove these two styles together and it really put me off. I’d have much rather the film had a consistent style for its characters and a sense of uniformity, rather than the whole thing feeling like it was a mish mash of styles and tones.

Outside of that though, *most* of the musical numbers are solid enough, the voice cast are animate, lively and fit their roles nicely. I do *kind* of wish there was a little more to the story as they do repeat a couple of plot points in this with minor variations…But ultimately? I really kind of liked this one.

I dont think it’s going to set anyones socks on fire, but I really liked the messeging, the script came across as sincere, charismatic and tonally sound. In a sea of mediocre christmas specials ‘The Tangerine Bear’ stands out *just* enough, that I actually feel like I could probably revisit this one year on year.

Its available for free on youtube if your curious, i’d suggsest watching it there and if you like it, grabbing a copy is recommended. I’ll be hanging on to mine.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-tangerine-bear-home-in-time-for-christmas/

They say money cant buy happiness…but it can hire a script editor. And that I feel is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the problems I encountered when I decided to give ‘A Christmas Tree Miracle’ a spin.

an HOUR AND 43 MINUTES is this films full runtime. It could have been an hour and a half and felt neverending. It could have been twice as effective running at an hour + commercials. But no. This film drags its heels for the FULL duration, paying lip service to the concept of it being better to give than to recieve. And even thats forced…

So, this film is essentially a low budget holiday picture aimed at one of three groups of people (these groups can overlap) Conservative Christian families who think they understand ‘Hardship’, The Elderly and women of a certain hormonal delicacy. For anyone else? Buckle up because its going to be a long one.

The film follows a humble ultra rich family who have it all, two story manor house, all of them that can drive have cars, the have a summer home, they want for nothing. Then, the husband (David) loses his job. cue a good solid 40-50 minutes of the family slowly falling deeper and deeper into despair, as they’re forced at first to cut back on luxuries, then essentials, then they raid the trust fund, before winding up in a motel…and they’re even set to lose that.

When their youngest cello playing daughter suggests throwing themselves to the mercy of the church for sanctuary, the family oblige and meet ‘Henry’ a christmas tree salesman who doesnt sell trees…he GIVES them away, and because of a passing random act of kindness on Davids part 12 months prior. Henry offers to bring them back to his place, give them food, shelter and pay in exchange for working on his farm.

Little does he know, that David is actually working with a shady senator seeking re-election, who’s offering to give David a full time high paid job developing the land which the christmas tree farm sits on, if David can convince Henry to sell…

And I wont go any further than that, because it’ll spoil the film. But heres the key facts you need to know about this one.

Not ONE character in this film is GENUINELY selfless or sincere. not to mince my words, but ALL of them are arseholes. It plays into the neoliberal idea of charitable. the concept of ‘giving lipservice’ to a cause, while realistically wanting nothing to do with it.

The entire family (our main characters that we’re supposed to be rooting for) are selfish, self centered and arogant. The father, David ignores the advice of his peers to find temporary work to keep the ship afloat, to the point that he’s willing to try and exploit an old man RIGHT up to the end credits in order to make a quick buck in the slimiest way possible…and the film never really absolves that issue. it makes up a technicality that gets David off the hook, had that technicality NOT happened, he’d have happily sold the farm, the house and everything in it for $3 and a ramen bowl.

The eldest son of the house Nick is just as bad, acting entitled when he thinks he has money, and furious that his family would treat HIM like a pauper when they dont have the money to pay for him to go to his girlfriends college or to let him keep his own car. They try to redeem his character by giving him one incident where he stands up to a bully, and one instance where he helps out on the farm. Its not enough.

If you want an idea where this films heart lies, around the midway point they introduce us (via the daughter of the family ‘Natalie’) to a new character by the name of ‘Tessa’. Tessa and her mum barely survived a house fire, they lost absolutely everything in the process and are now sad, lonely, frustrated and living out of a homeless shelter, reliant on welfare and food packages and barely functioning.

Natalie and Tessa have a brief introduction, where they seem to hit it off and you begin to think ‘Ah, Natalie is a bit self absorbed and Tessas a bit of a grounded goofy realist…maybe this will be what grounds Natalie’ NO! because Tessa then vanishes from the movie for 20 minutes, then is re-introduced for about 3 minutes in a scene where she explains she took several busses and an amish buggy to get to the tree farm to come and hang with Natalie, so THEN you’re thinking ‘Oh…okay, so she isnt going to be a prominant character…but maybe she’ll have some purpose? Maybe the family will come into a bit of money and use it to help give Tessa and her mum a second chance while setting themselves up in smaller, but modest living?’

NO! she finishes that scene and is LITERALLY never seen, mentioned or referenced again. For all I know Tessa and her mum blew their collective brains out 5 minutes off the end of the credits. It was at that point I realised that, even AFTER droning on about the importance of doing the right thing, hard working and good moral standing. This film was STILL completely self absorbed in the needs of its core characters, rather than ACTUALLY trying to prove its point by example and help the homeless folk out.

Theres a strong ‘christian’ cinema vibe across the runtime of this film, its subtle, but if you’ve seen enough christian funded films, you pick bits out. Stuff like a heavy reliance on the church, multiple moments where the characters discuss there faith and the power of the lord in detail. Muzak versions and variations on christian hymns (Lord of the dance was a particularly noticable one) Its the kind of coding where, if you wernt actively looking for it, you’d miss it. But its invasive and a little discomforting to recognize here.

AND THATS NOT EVEN MENTIONING, That the film collectively spends 20 minutes of it’s hour and 43 minute runtime ACTUALLY dealing with ANYTHING about christmas. We get 10 minutes in the opening, and 10 minutes at the end. And even then, we get one christmas day (featured in the opening) and the ending closes out a few days off Christmas day itself…the rest of the film? takes place between February and October. Making it probably one of the least christmassy christmas films i’ve seen since ‘The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe’

I’ve prattled on a fair bit here. But to more ‘technical matters’ the direction and cine here are fine. they’re well above similar low budgeted features that came out around this time. its on the level, but doesnt exceed expectations. its just a fairly solid, if not somewhat cheap viewing experience. Same goes for the editing, its VERY slow, and absolutely could have done with some more pass throughs to get that runtime under control. But what IS here is reasonably cut, paced out fairly well. its just bloated.

The script is the thorn in this films side, Overly long, with poor messaging, DEEPLY unlikable characters, a somewhat aimless plot. The tones a bit all over the place, it ends poorly, the three act structure is seriously bent out of shape and the dialogue dances a VERY fine line between awkward, cheesy and cringey in ALL the worst ways imaginable.

But it also commits the cardinal sin. Its dull. Even ‘Henry’ the hobo tree salesman cant muster the amount of festive sparkle needed to really get this thing into the holiday swing of things. I dont know how badly you need to mess up you christmas film script, that you have to add a throw-away line in about three quarters of the way in to try and explain why a house would be fully decked with christmas ornaments in september…But this film took a running start at giving it a go.

Not even fun as ‘riffing’ mateiral with drunken friends. ‘A Christmas Tree Miracle’ coasts by on ‘mediocre’ technical ability that *JUST* manages to stop it COMPLETELY falling apart as a production. But that script on a technical, moral and spiritual level…is just hideous to me. I really wasnt a fan, I ABSOLUTELY cant and wont recommend this thing to anyone. If you want festive slush that (largely) has its heart in the right place, hit the hallmark channel this holiday season.

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

A real return to form for the ‘Hey Folks’ series. Not a whole lot to say about this one honestly. It’s more intermission commercials from drive ins and theaters.

But I feel this one gets the balance of campy fun and not getting to repetitive about right. There’s a good variety, things rarely slow down (barring a couple of 3 minute countdown clocks…) it’s good! It’s been a while since I’ve watched these latter compilations, but I’d say Volumes 1 and 4 were must see’s if your interested in this kind of thing.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hey-folks-its-intermission-time-vol-4/