Attempting a sequel to any well-loved film is a challenge but after 54 years, when time has rendered it near-iconic and placed it atop a nostalgic pedestal of near-unreachable proportions, it is an almost impossible undertaking you might think. Possibly, but clearly this didn’t faze screenwriter David Magee and director Continue Reading
Movies
What’s the best way to react to a bad Christmas gift? Let Benedict Cumberbatch show you how
Ah the joy of getting just the right present at Christmas! But what if, pray tell, you are given a less than stellar gift, and being the lovely, sweet, caring person that you are, don’t want offend the giver of said gift? This is where British actor, and all-around acting Continue Reading
Happy pop culture Christmas everyone!
It’s a Golden Books Christmas with Donald Duck, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Winnie the Pooh and Babes in Toyland
So here’s something you may not know – Alaska only became a state of the USA in 1959. Making much of that fact, this lovely tale of Yogi and Boo Boo heading off to spend Christmas with Uncle Northman and Kate Kodiak, and their young cubs Yukon and Klondike, is Continue Reading
Let’s get festively real! Elf gets an Honest Trailer
What’s your preference when it comes to Christmas movies – sweet, funny or weird? Or do you like all three? If you answered as affirmative “Yes, yes, yes” to the question – it sounded like a cute take on “Ho ho ho” in my blog post-writing but now sounds Continue Reading
On 12th day of Christmas … I watched The Christmas Chronicles
Good lord but the spirit of Christmas is a fragile and easily-derailed thing. Judging by the sheer exuberantly-colourful preponderance of Christmasness everywhere, you would be reasonably safe to assume that the festive season is a robust and unalterable thing. Not so, counsel endless numbers of Christmas films, with one of Continue Reading
Christmas retro movie review: Die Hard
Merry Christmas, John McClane! In the classic late ’80s blockbuster Die Hard, which is indisputably a Christmas movie – exhibit A is “Let it Snow!” sung not simply by Al (Reginald VelJohnson) but beautifully soundtracked at the end of the film as Argyle (De’voreaux White) the limo driver drives everyone Continue Reading
Movie review: Dumplin’
It will surprise exactly no one that we live in a world unforgiving of difference. If you slip neatly into the box marked “acceptability”with a minimum of fuss and a marked absence of flamboyance and free thought, you are patted on the head, awarded a gold star and sent on Continue Reading
The 12 Days of Christmas – A Tale of Avian Misery
This is the smartest, funniest deconstruction of the song “The 12 Days of Christmas” that I have ever seen. Narrated by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who possesses a voice so mellifluous and wry with inflection that she must be mandated by law, to narrate everything, and I mean everything, the short film Continue Reading
Lessons from the Screenplay: Good Will Hunting — The Psychology of Character
SNAPSHOT There’s a scene in Good Will Hunting that makes me emotional every time I watch it. It is brilliantly acted and directed, but it’s also emotional because we understand the psychology of the protagonist and witness a cathartic breakthrough. So this video examines how characters use defense mechanisms Continue Reading