TYTD Reviews

A staple of early 2000s ‘Cartoon Network’ and probably the last Christmas special I’ll watch for this year. ‘Grandma Got Run Over By A Raindeer’ is the…unusual end product of someone saying ‘Hey everyone loves that hokey christmas novelty song, why not animate it and see what happens!?’

Well, i’ll tell you what the end result is…strangeness and a kind of incoherent story that may or may not be fleshed out with tracks from the album that the titular track came from (I havent got the volition to search it up…its 4:30am as I type this)

The Plot jumps around in time a little bit but basically covers the ‘before’, ‘during’ and ‘after’ of the events of the song. With the film opening establishing that ‘Grandma’ is in fact the owner of one of ‘Cityvilles’ most loved and longest established general stores. Grandma is an old time store owner and is more than happy to offer regulars store credit to get through hard times…Much to the annoyance of ‘Cousin Mel’ who wants Grandma to sell up the shop to a local land tycoon whos willing to offer the family millions to sell the shop so it can be demolished and replaced with…something? the…the special doesnt really say I dont believe.

Anyway, cousin Mel decides to try and force the issue by spiking some of Grandmas fruit cakes with ‘something bad’ in the hopes that it’ll drive customers away and eventually force the sale of the store…But before that can happen, Grandma heads out on christmas eve night to get her medication from the store and winds up getting run over by Santas sleigh. with the only witnesses being Grandmas Grandson (who may or may not be the narrator)…and Grandpa.

The family naturally dont believe the tale…But when Grandmas body cant be found, and she isnt at the usual places, concern begins to set in…Meanwhile Cousin Mel takes the opportunity to weedle a ‘power of attorney’ placement out of Grandpa, and in turn begins the negotiations to sell the store. With time fast running out, Its down to the doting grandson to piece together the clues, find Grandma and get her back up and running before the stores closed for good!

I have somewhat nostalgic memories catching this over the years on Cartoon Network…But watching it now…it…has not aged well. Cash in is about as good as I can muster for this one…an attempt to revive interest in a novelty record that was a little stinky the year it came out, letalone 16 years after it got a release…

The scripts all over the place, with act structuring and pacing thats inconsistent, it cant quite nail the tone of humour it wants to go with swinging wildly between being semi serious to ‘Scrubs’ style ‘pop aways’ into sequences of Cousin mel conga dancing with her lawyer, or Grandpa thinking hes Elvis.

The humours so scattershot that it got a chuckle more for how surreal and all over the place it was really than anything it intentionally tried to do. The act structurings all over the place, the characters have next to no depth. and the ending is quite underwhelming even for the low bar this special set.

The animation is semi consistent, but I cant lie, I personally find it a bit ugly…the promotional materials seem to have been done in a slightly different art style, which DOES look pretty okay…But the animation itself is a little too mixed on style, they’re all in vaguely the same ball park, but characters are *just* different enough style wise to create an unsettling contrast.

Not helped either by the fact they recycle chunks of the special BACK INTO itself for the music video breaks…OR that they even HAVE music video breaks here…

The voice acting is fine enough, not great…but gets the job done and the score swings WILDLY between frankly terrible and genuinely bizarre in the best possible way.

I still get quite nostalgic about this strange little special, but 21 years of film making, a degree in media and film production and theory and 7 and a half years of working in film journalism/criticism REALLY does not go in this films favour. I dont think its very good ultimately, and i’d say unless you were nostalgic for this (having seen it when it first went out) OR if you like bad holiday specials. I dont think you’ll really get a kick out of this one.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/grandma-got-run-over-by-a-reindeer/

2024 will probably go down for me as the year where the TV listings just DID NOT relent in trying to make up to me for years of crappy scheduling. ‘Black Dynamite’ comes courtesy of ITV this year…for some reason. and it’s been on my ‘to watch’ list for years…free is the best price in my book, so I settled down and I was NOT dissapointed.

‘Black Dynamite’ is essentially a parody of blacksploitation films styalized to the 1970s and occasionally using ACTUAL cutaway footage from blacksploitation films. But its greatest strength at times can be its biggest weakness.

The plot follows ‘Black Dynamite’ an ex-CIA agent whos essentially an amalgamation of Dolemite, Shaft and a bevvy of other Blacksploitation heros. who’s dragged into ‘one last mission’ when his brother Jimmy ends up killed by drug dealers, leading him to recruit a chapter of the black panthers, some local pimps and pushers and even members of the CIA to track down the killers and get the steady supply of smack off the street and out of the hands of the poor unfortunate orphan children!

And I wont go as far as to say this thing was a laugh riot, but it was absolutely a lot of fun! the plot is barely coherent (on purpose) and utilises the old trick of ‘its a fake bad movie, so we get to do on set goofs like leave the boom mic in and its funny because of that!’ Which, im usually kind of against, but here they make it so effortless, a personal favourite being a scene where gangsters turn up at a coffee shop and start to open fire, only for one of the ‘gang’ members to realise they hadnt put the parking break on their car, which slowly starts to roll away, before jumpcutting back into place.

Theres TONS of in jokes and references to real life blacksploitation films. But that, in a way becomes its achilles heel. Because the blacksploitation genre in and of itself is SO over the top and ludicrous in places. ‘Black Dynamite’ at times feels like its trying to out-comedy ACTUAL movies accidental comedy. Which is a bit of a perilous place to put your movie as, from my own experience, natural accidental comedy almost always trumps carefully planned comedy.

Films like ‘The Human Tornado’ or ‘Supersoul brother’ thrive on the fact they’re being made for a budget of 20 cents and a dream and its the little moments that cemented it into film history. Black dynamite had a budget, and is *trying* to recapture that lightning in a bottle…and I feel it does so with mixed success…When it hits, its hilarious…But when it misses, you really feel it.

as for the script itself, its fun! maybe about 10-15 minutes longer than I would have liked, but they nail the tone and theming they’re aiming for, at times it genuinely looks like a 70s exploitation flick. the pacings a little stop/start, particularly in the back end of the film where it seems the script fully derails as we enter multiple absurdist subplots involving storming a kung fu island compound, and fighting several VERY unexpected historical figures.

The characters are all purposfully vague, which is genius honestly because it means that Black Dynamite himself can basically literally do anything, leading to several genuinely funny out of pocket moments I wasnt expecting. and giving the supporting cast the perfect foil to either play it straight, or go along with the madness to great effect.

Direction is about as authentic to these kind of low budget 70s exploitation flicks as it can get, with only a couple of CGI effects dotted throughout pulling me out of the action, the micro mistakes embedded in the film are a nice touch, and I feel like this was a clear vision, translated fairly effortlessly to the screen.

Same goes for the cine, barring one or two moments that feel a bit ‘too’ modern for the time, this is fairly period authentic and the edit reflects that, I do feel like the edit itself needed one more pass through to really get it bought down to a consistantly nippy runtime…But thats really only a minor quibble.

Performance wise, Michael Jai White revels in this role and absolutely nails it for what its worth. Dolemite eat your heart out, Black Dynamite is the blacksploitation amalgamation we didnt know we needed. White chews the scenery good and proper and delivers some of the biggest belly laughs of the production. its almost certainly a career high and Im delighted to hear he reprised the role for an animated series shortly after this films release.

Byron Minns and Tommy Davidson as Bullhorn and Creamcorn are also just wonderful and gave me a few good chuckles too…What really works in this films favour is everyone involved KNOWS what kind of movie this is, but they seldom lean INTO the hokeiness of it all, its played sincerely, and THAT is what I think endears me to this production so much.

Throw in a soundtrack thats a mixture of new compositions and library tracks from old 70s exploitation films, and you’ve got a power packed punch of a movie that, if you have ANY love for the blacksploitation genre, should be on your watch list.

‘Black Dynamite’ is a flawed film in a sense, it overstays its welcome ever so slightly and by aping an already kind of ludicrous genre it, at times finds itself failing to be funnier than the real life films that inspired it. But I have a real soft spot for this one. I really do need to try and grab a physical copy of it asap, and I absolutely encourage you to seek this one out if you havent already.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/black-dynamite/

I have been a bad partner honestly…My partner has been begging me on and off to watch ‘Moana’ with her for the better part fo 7 years…and for one reason or another, we’ve just never been able to get it lined up…But today? we had a christmas lock in. all day in front of the box playing video games, watching TV and movies and consuming a large volume of our fridge…and NOW is the time for ‘Moana’.

…And I kind of feel bad that I didnt really ‘like’ it…like, dont get me wrong! its good! VERY well made, impressive animation, decent casting, fun moments…But it just…didnt really resonate with me.

The plot revolves around the titual Moana, an island girl who lives on an island with islanders whos dad is the island chief and who has been brought up to want to live on the island because eventually she’ll run the island and the island is a tropical paradise and its set on an island…island.

But Moana doesnt WANT to be an island (island) girl! She wants to explore beyond the reef! visit strange and exotic places and while she wants to make her family proud and continue the tradition of running the island and its subjects…She has grander plans.

And then several things happen very quickly. The island starts to…well…basically begin to rot, all the fish vanish and the coconut supply goes rotten. At first Moana thinks there’ll be more fish beyond the reef, and despite her dads protests, she shores up a boat and heads out…only to get nurf’d by a wave.

Undefeated she eventually has a conversation with her grandma, who reveals that she is in fact chosen by the ocean to go on a great quest to ‘restore the heart of Te-Fiti’ a goddess who, over 1000 years ago had her heart stolen by a demi-god called Maui who mysteriously vanished after a fight with another god by the name of Te-Ka.

Moana is to go, find Maui, command him to get on her boat and take her to the island of Te-fiti where he is to return the heart and restore order to the islands. And to further embolden her, her grandma reveals that up until recently all of Moanas relatives were in fact wayfinders and voyagers. Keen to explore as much as possible.

With that, Moana loads up a napsack, hitches a boat and heads off to find the demi-god and restore the islands…But when she finally DOES locate Maui…things arnt quite as prophesized…

So…Look, this is a Disney movie and as such my usual review notes around ‘technical ability’ and ‘creative output’ are kind of a moot point. They excel in creating BEYOND technically proficiant digital and 2d animated movies, they have done for years and they continue to do so.

So realistically, my comments on Cine and direction for this one are best summerized by ‘Yep…thats A-okay’…I enjoyed the direction, I found it quite creative in places, as I did with the cine around the animation and the way the scenes were set up. Do I think it went above and beyond? No. Do I think it more than surpassed the standard expectation. Absolutely.

Which means really, I only have the scripting, performances and music to talk about here. and the scripting is probably going to be the most contentious thing I have to talk about really.

Its a problem a lot of the more contemporary (last 15 years) Disney productions have…and its to do with runtime and pacing. I’ve never believed that a film predominantly aimed at children should be close to 2 hours long. Kids films (unless they have a BLOODY good reason) should NEVER break 90 minutes in my opinion. Im a grown adult and struggle to stick with something for 2 hours or more…as a child, I wouldnt have made it much past Moana leaving the island the first time. And given kids today are supposed to be the ‘ipad generation’ who’s attention spans have been totally nuked by Tiktok and Gore.com. I cant believe that kids who wernt already front loaded into this film would stick with it past the first act.

Which then leads me onto the second problem I have with this film, the pacing and act structuring. I CRAWLED through the first act of this film…CRAWLED. They spent so long establishing life on the island, the islands lore, the characters of the island (hell they introduce a cute pig and then cut it out of the rest of the movie for seemingly no reason) that by the time the ACTUAL plot had surfaced, I was already restless and reaching for my phone.

It seems to struggle repeatedly with knowing exactly what to focus on and how to hone in on the moments that DID draw my attention. Moana and Maui’s first encounter is delightful, the section in the realm of monsters, I really quite enjoyed…But the rest of the film is essentially Moana and Maui on a boat, talking about family traumas and finding their places in the world…and that. is. SLOW. SO painfully slow…and it feels like the film makes a point of pulling the handbreak and saying ‘No! YOU WILL HEAR MAUI’S TRAGIC BACKSTORY BEFORE WE SHOW YOU MORE HEIHEI’…

…It crashes the momentum of the film repeatedly and catastrophically, to the point that it started to feel more like they were given a runtime to hit and had to pad the thing to hit the golden mark, rather than just letting the film naturally grow out of the situation.

Equally not helping matters (and I will try to avoid spoilers here) but the films resolution is just kind of a nothing. I will give the film credit that the twist reveal at the end was quite well handled…But the films spent an hour and 40 building to this, and when that twist happens…nothing much comes from it. the gang kind of just…go home…and thats it. Which…given that for the preceeding hour and 40 Moana and Maui had been built up as semi mythical figures who were going to change the world forever…well, it was a bit deflating to be honest.

Hei hei the chicken is cute, but his joke gets redone OVER and OVER and OVER again until its well and truely ground into the dust. the film hovers in a single gear for most of the second act, idling basically to get us to the finale reveal. and the act structuring is a bit all over the place, with a heavy on the exposition (which wasnt really needed) first act, leading to an actually kind of alright but very Stop/Start middle act, and then it feels like the film was running out of time and as a result the 3rd act is just crammed in and made to work as best as it can…Which was kind of dissapointing.

The characters dont have much depth and emotional range and when the film attempts to inject some, it doesnt feel genuine to sincere to me…It feels like they realised making Maui an asshole for most of the runtime WITHOUT giving him some kind of tragic backstory just wasnt going to sit well…so they just gave him a generic ‘out’ to let him have justification for being a dingus, and then the film uses that generic ‘out’ to force a character change on him in the 3rd act.

The vocal performances are fine enough, Auli’i Cravalho is a pretty solid lead as ‘Moana’, One of the better offerings i’ve seen in modern Disney if im honest…Its just a bit of a shame she doesnt really get to do much other than steer the boat and follow Maui around.

Dwayne Johnson as Maui is equally solid. But just has the occasional moment that feels ‘off’ for lack of a better word…like Im not sure if its a dialogue issue, or a delivery issue…But something just didnt sit right with me about his performance in a couple of places…

And…because I dont have much to say about it, the supporting cast were ‘fine’, but also ‘unremarkable’ with probably the only other standout performance here being Jermaine Clement as the sparkley crab Tamatoa, who ALSO gets one of the better character pieces in the film AND one of the better songs in the movie too.

Which leads me to, the soundtrack…and basically the only songs I jammed with were ‘You’re Welcome’ and ‘Shiny’ both of which are legitimate bops. But the rest? I couldnt hum you a bar. I know there was one where the word ‘Island’ was said approximately 16 million times…but again I couldnt sing you a line of it. other than going ‘Island, island island island ISLAND, island island ISLAND, ISLAND ISLAND ISLAND’…it was a tad on the generic side, and by the 3rd act I did find myself saying ‘Not everything NEEDS to be a song’

I know that Disney movies have musical elements to them…but it felt in places like this film was TRYING to cram as much music in as possible, rather than letting songs happen organically.

I didnt hate ‘Moana’ its technically sound, the performances are fun and well handled and I enjoyed some of the gags and music…But I have major issues with the script on a structural level and they really overplayed their hand on the musical numbers. If your kid likes it, I wont ick their yum. But This was too long and generic for me sadly…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/moana-2016/

A more than pleasent surprise for the christmas listings this year, ‘Wallace & Gromit’ return with their 2nd ever feature length outing in ‘Vengence Most Fowl’ a sequel to the 1995 claymation masterwork ‘The Wrong Trousers’. Having had a soft spot for the pair now for years, this was kind of an easy sell for me. But what surprised me the most is just how close it comes to surpassing ‘Trousers’ in terms of scope and scale!

We pick up many years after the events of ‘The Wrong Trousers’ and Wallace is once again in financial trouble, fearing the baliffs, he puts his thinking cap on and comes up with the ‘Norbot’ a ‘Smart Gnome’ who cant do almost any task inside or outside of the home. When word catches on at just how effective Norbot is, Wallace becomes a household name. But after a news crew interviews the inventor, word reaches a most despicable enemy. Feathers McGraw! Who’s still serving time in the zoo for the attempted theft of the Blue Diamond in ‘Wrong Trousers’.

Feathers hatches a scheme to bust out utilising Norbot and frames Wallace for a spate of burglerys leading the pair to turn detective to find out exactly WHO is framing them and what Feathers could be up to next!

And what we have here is a DAMN solid hour and 20 the isnt afraid to push the pair forward, but is MORE than willing to embrace their past. For a british person who grew up with the pair, it was a warm christmas hug from the screen.

The plot is energetic, rarely slowing down and only really starting to creak a bit towards the end of the 2nd half, where they have to cram in a lot of exposition VERY quickly to crash us into the 3rd act. And the thing I appreciated most about this entry is they finally seemed to have understood that we, as an audience, dont WANT Wallace & Gromit to be some kind of heavily cinematic, highly polished product. a bit of the rough and ‘handmade’ quality to it is what makes it feel home grown and wonderful. And to see that personal touch back again here really was quite wonderful.

The pacings consistant mostly throughout (barring the aforementioned 2nd act slowdown) and the humour is pretty much perfectly balanced, and a DEFINITE improvement over their previous outing ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’. they’ve gone back to what works with this pair, and thats gentle visual comedy and the occasional rhy comedy line well timed. And thats EXACTLY the kind of thing I go to Wallace and Gromit for…Not references to ‘Batman 1966’.

The animation itself is lovely, While I dont think this film *quite* hits the complexity of ‘Wrong Trousers’ or ‘Close shave’ in terms of visual creativity and jaw dropping scene construction. It does have a ruddy good go and that creative effort really does pay off, delivering (arguably) the most solid work the studios produced in *AT LEAST* 20 years. Moments such as the finale or Wallaces new ‘Wake up’ machine are very well handled and the whole thing oozes a charm.

I also have to add that, for the first time in a while, there is ACTUALLY a genuine unsettling quality to the villains in this piece, Norbot has moments that I am fairly convinced WILL traumatise young children (consider that a warning) as *I* as a fully grown adult got the fear from those bloody gnomes at least once or twice…

As for the performances? Sadly Peter Sallis passed away in 2017, but since then the voice of Wallace has been headed up by Ben Whitehead. and honestly? if you didnt KNOW Sallis had died, you’d think it WAS him…I only really picked up on it based on LITERALLY one or two brief line deliveries where the phonics didnt line up *quite* with how Sallis had delivered them in the past. Otherwise its a remarkable performance that really nails the warmth and curiosity Wallace as a character has, and I was quite impressed.

Reece shearsmith delights as Norbot, frankly just knowing its Shearsmith adds a whole other layer of folk horror fear to proceedings. I enjoyed his take a lot, even the cameos from Peter Kay, Lauren Patel and Dianne Morgan were utterly delightful and really more than nailed the brief. They aced it.

And finally the soundtrack. Which again, I cant honestly flaw really…Its maybe not *quite* as memorable as the firm fan favourite entries…But again, it has a ruddy good go, and I could believe it WOULD become a ‘fondly remembered classic’ in future.

In short, this was a very nice christmas present from Aardman animations. A really well built production which, apart from one or two minor pacing issues and a few duff jokes, had me chortling over my cheeseboard (im not kidding, this film prompted me and the missus to go and break the cheeseboard out…it has that kind of mythic power)

Would I recommend ‘Vengence Most Fowl?’ Absolutely! But, if you REALLY want a christmas treat…Maybe either watch it ASAP or save it for next christmas. I think its best watched with the tin of chocolates, a glass of the good stuff and the blinds closed. Enjoy.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/wallace-gromit-vengeance-most-fowl/

Watched on Friday December 27, 2024.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/a-charlie-brown-christmas/1/

Watched on Friday December 27, 2024.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/blackadders-christmas-carol/1/

Its a semi annual tradition in my household to watch the ‘Father Ted’ Christmas special at SOME point between the 23rd and 27th of December. i’ve done it for at least the last decade and a half. This year, things did get a bit weird. I watched half the special on christmas eve, and the final half on boxing day…its been a bit of a loaded holiday season.

BUT! With Letterboxd slowly adding TV shows to the equation (that and the fact I didnt realise this one was even loggable on Letterboxd) I figured i’d add it on here.

Keeping it brief. I dont think this is the best episode of ‘Father Ted’ made. But given just how high calibre ‘Father Ted’ is as a series, even with a bit of a quality drop, the christmas special still manages to completely trump most other TV shows christmas offerings.

The jokes are 10 a minute, the plots silly and a bit all over the place (but in an endearing way). its fun to see these characters engaging in christmas bits and bobs. Ted and the golden cleric/Todd plotline are fab and I have lost count at the amount of times i’ve quoted this special in day to day conversation.

I cant abide Graham Linehan for what he’s done in recent years, but back before his brain turned to soup and he started ranting about bathroom stalls, him and Arthur Matthews were probably the greatest comedy writing duo of their generation. and this being one of their ‘mid’ offerings, really is a testimony to just how good they were.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/father-ted-a-christmassy-ted/

Finishing off ‘The Santa Clause’ trilogy (unless you count the recent Disney+ multi part TV series…which I personally dont) we have, arguably, the best ‘Santa Clause’ film in the whole series…Theres two main reasons for that…One is that theres no bizarre Body horror and minimal mysonginy on display…and the other is Martin Short.

‘The Santa Clause 3’ is a flashback movie…we open with Mrs. Clause (See: Santa Clause 2) teaching a classroom of elves, where she recounts a WILD and KERRRAZY adventure her and the big red feller went through a year or two ago. We then flash back a year or so and its revealed that Mrs. Clause is pregnant, the workshop is behind on deliveries and Santas got his attention split in half a dozen different places.

Chief among them is Mrs. Clause is getting a bit homesick. Not so much for the US, but more for the relatability of actual full sized humans, and not elves or Scotts extended family whenever they can be arsed to show up. So, to try and comfort his wife, Santa decides the best possible thing to do is to bring her parents up to the North Pole to spend time with her and hopefully support her during the final weeks of her pregnancy.

However, they’re WAY too behind schedule to go down to the states and kidnap a couple of ‘in-laws’…Enter Martin Short as ‘Jack Frost’ a ‘legendary figure’ who aspires to be as well known as famous as Santa and his peers…But doesnt really want to put the effort in. When Santa expresses his need to find some way to get some time to travel away from the workshop, Jack JUMPS at the chance, seeing it as a way to either try and muscle in on Santas racket and make a name for himself…or ideally, sabotage the red guys operations and capitalise on the chaos.

Pitching in as ‘a caring person who just wants to help’ Jack positions himself as someone who could briefly handle the show while Santa supports his family. Santas reluctant, but is assured a very close eye will be kept on Jack…and with that in mind, he agrees.

But Jacks got bigger plans. He wants the top dogs job, and when he learns of a top secret ‘additional’ clause called ‘The Escape Clause’ which allows a Santa to transfer his powers to someone else and undo all the work they’ve done…Jack sees his best shot at making a name for himself.

And…honestly? This one is probably the best of the three in my opinion. Is it high concept and creative? No. Not particularly…its a lot fo low brow humour and lines that feel improvised, shoehorned into a film where the 3rd act randomly decides it wants to be ‘Its a wonderful life’…until it decides suddenly that it doesnt want to be that. But given just HOW strange the previous 2 entries were…to just get a kind of alright, non problematic, non scary entry in this series…to get one that actually HAS proper jokes, engaging characters and a premise thats kind of okay…is somehow just about enough to not make me outright dislike this thing.

The scripts relatively solid, its just over 90 minutes long, JUST begins to overstay its welcome in the final act and relies HEAVILY on the audience not asking too many questions about the logistics and continuity of the series…But beyond that…its actually not half bad. the pacing is decent, they finally nail a tone that feels consistent and (mostly) entertaining. the act structuring is a little wonky, with a top heavy first act, a kind of middling 2nd act and 3rd act that suffers from a bit of an identity crisis…But it pulls it all together by the end.

the humour is a little scattershot, with it being a family film im guessing they’re just doing all the comedy styles to try and appeal to all age groups…but in doing that it is still quite hit and miss…But i’d say of the 3 ‘Santa Clause’ movies…this one is definitely more hit than miss. The characters all seem to be a bit softer and comedically driven here, and the introduction of Shorts ‘Jack Frost’ really helps smooth over all the cracks that the previous entries had suffered from.

The direction feels a little more up market than the last entry, but is still kind of in the realms of ‘direct to video/TV movie’…I think the main reason this one DOES feel a bit more polished than the previous entry is, it is a little bit safer as a production…they dont use nearly as much CG as the last 2 films, and if they do its as overlays (like Jacks frosty breath) rather than whole generated CG sequences. they also dont suffer from as many ropey practical effects which helps…but the vast majority of the film is set either on the workshop sets, or in houses…which are pretty easy to set dress for, and I believe for this film they just reused the set built for ‘Santa Clause 2’ which no doubt saved some cash.

I feel like non of the ‘Santa Clause’ movies really capture the vibe and feeling of christmas, and non of them give me the ‘warm fuzzies’. This one does try…But just, doesnt really do a lot for me in that regard. I think the original is probably the one that came closest…and even then it struggled.

Its competent direction, I cant fault it there…it just isnt a tailored experience and left me kind of wishing the warmth and heart was there.

Direction of the cast is also a little flat…everyone by this point (barring Short, and people in scenes with Short) are phoning it in. it’s clear its a ‘done’ production with very little animation from most involved and it feels like they basically followed the directors instructions TO THE LETTER…and not a feeling more than that…which…is a problem.

Same goes for the cine…its best summed up as ‘they did what needed to be done to make it studio appropriate, and not a thought more’ this is competent(ish) I spotted a couple of continuity errors across the runtime, a lot of this is filmed fairly wide and there isnt nearly as many dolly/track shots or angled shots here…which again, just makes it feel very ‘TV’ in tone and vibe.

The edits a bit plodding, but does have its moments…I feel like with a bit more B-roll and one more pass through, this could have actually been pretty decent…like GOOD end of decent…as it stands its just passible and kind of middle of the road all things considered.

Performance wise. I get the feeling Martin Short wanted to do this, and that the paycheque was just a nice bonus for him. He CHEWS EVERY single scene he’s in, is absolutely watchable across the whole runtime and is frankly the main reason to watch this movie. a delightfully campy and engaging performance throughout. he screams panto villain at multiple points in this and is just an utter delight from start to finish.

Tim Allen as Santa here feels a little more subdued…I feel he struggles to keep up with Shorts rapid deliveries and largely feels like he’s just there to bench warm…which is NOT a good sign if your movie is called ‘The Santa Clause’. When he does have his moments, he’s solid…But for the most part he just seems to be here for a quick buck and a couple months of hanging around with his friends.

The rest of the cast are largely returning from the last entry (though notably, theres no Bernard in this entry. And they never explain what happened to him…given he was a key component of the last 2 films I have to assume he was atomized in a bizarre christmas pudding accident and the trauma still haunts the workshop to this day).

the extended cast are fine otherwise…But I just wish they got more to do….With Scotts extended family (and Judge Rhinehold) being predominantly relegated to just saying plot exposition and doing emotional reactions to whats happening on screen. Hell Scotts first kid in this has a 5 minute cameo across the whole runtime that amounts to him writing himself out of the film in the first 15 minutes, then an alternate reality version of himself storms out of a house, and then he’s back again at the end to spew a bit of expoistion…and then hes gone. and I find a film that has a CORE PLOTPOINT around how supporting and spending time with your family is critically important, that ALSO spends the vast majority of the runtime DESPERATELY trying to get rid of Scotts first kid because he’s old now HILARIOUS. Its wild to me the gaul of this film.

The soundtracks unmemorable. I dont even think there were any jukebox classics in this one. its fine enough but…blehhh…

‘The Santa Clause 3′ is a stable and consistant production, and thats really all i’ve wanted from this series since the first film. just…an entry in the series that takes these characters, DOESNT screw around with them in horrifying or objectifying ways and just…gives them an ACTUAL grounded story, to see how they deal with situations and play things out. This is absolutely an imperfect production. But I appreciate the fact it at least TRIES to give these characters CHARACTER and a reason to exist…rather than just sending them off on another ’90 minute timer movie’ to save christmas.

In that regard its probably my favourite entry in this series, and probably the only one i’d actively CHOOSE to watch again given the chance. its just a shame you need to have seen the first two movies at least once to properly appreciate this one.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-santa-clause-3-the-escape-clause/

Watched on Thursday December 26, 2024.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/oliver/4/

While a brand new episode of ‘Doctor Who’ went out tonight, I was spread a bit *too* thin on the ground to be able to really take it in. So I settled for a HELL of a christmas gift from the beeb in the form of ‘The War Games: in Colour’ a modernisation/redux of the 1969 epic that saw the final outing for Patrick Troughtons incarnation of the doctor.

To get it out of the way up front, Troughton is my favourite incarnation of the doctor, and my biggest critique of ‘The War Games’ as a Swan song is, while it’s nice to see this doctor out with a 4-5 hour epic that’s probably one of the cruellest regenerations in the shows history, and the story that formally introduces ‘The Time Lords’ as a concept. It is a little overlong.

8 episodes would have more than sufficed, 6 episodes? Plenty. 10 is stretching resource and patience a bit thin. I also find it a real shame that this version of the time Lords is the first and last time the omnipotent ‘god’ timelords would appear. With all other appearnecs relegating them to essentially librarian beuracrat bores in silly hats. 5th doctor era timelords will bill you for jaywalking. 2nd doctor timelords will ‘unexist’ you from the timeline.

As such, I found this redux, which reduces the runtime to 90 minutes, enhances some of the older visual effects, extends the ending to make it lead directly into the 3rd doctors first story AND fully recolourizes the adventure for the first time, wonderfully refreshing.

This feels much more light weight, easier to digest and much more accessible. And while I WILL say it does cut this thing right down to the bone, sometimes to it’s own detriment. I feel it flows significantly better than their first attempt at this with ‘The Daleks: In Colour’ and the new score really helps refresh this classic.

I’ve only ever seen ‘The war games’ in full about 3 times…purely because its basically a full day commitment to watch it. As such it kind of puts me off…

Im firmly in the camp that believes that this version doesnt replace the original, but is a compliment to it…and with that in mind, with this redux, I think I’ll watch the war games a HELL of a lot more now.

What a fab Christmas gift. And if you haven’t seen it, I recommend it.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/doctor-who-the-war-games-in-colour/