When this movie first came out I watched it and I immediately hated it. In retrospect, my revulsion for Love Actually stemmed from my being at the height of my high school era “I’m so lonely and angry and no one gets me!” angst as well as a serious (perhaps irrational) grudge against Keira Knightley.
Recently, having ditched at least most of my adolescent personality issues and learned to accept (or at least give the benefit of the doubt) to Ms. Knightley, I thought I would generously offer Love Actually another chance. After all, there are tons of other good actors in it and it seems to be a Christmas favorite of a lot of people so why not.
Well my friends, this movie had all the charm of a month old stick of Juicy Fruit gum—a little sweet, a little sickening, overall hugely unimpressive and sure to leave a bad taste in your mouth. Love Actually is not bad enough to outright reject, but has few redeeming qualities that make it crave-able, at least for me.
I would much rather watch a movie that I felt strongly about, whether the film is outright rage-provoking or entirely delightful. Otherwise it just feels like I’m wasting my time in bland, inoffensive, “nice” way.
Not a great way to spend a holiday evening.
Showing posts with label Holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holiday. Show all posts
08 December 2009
03 December 2009
Christmas Vacation (1989)
Do you like the kind of movie where everything that could possibly go wrong for the main character does, and with a vengeance? When no matter how hard this character tries, he or she simply cannot seem to accomplish anything? I don’t. I hate that kind of movie. Movies like that make me want to tear my hair out while screaming and repeatedly punching the TV until nothing remains but an irreparable pile of plastic and wires.
Yet somehow, perhaps only by some sort of twisted Christmas miracle, Chevy Chase’s classic Christmas Vacation remains a post-Thanksgiving staple for me, and no holiday season is complete without it.
Even though Chase’s character Clark W. Griswold goes through everything from his precious Christmas tree spontaneously combusting to accidentally getting locked in his own attic for an entire day, I can’t help but participate in this insane disaster of a holiday with a many a heartfelt belly laugh.
My perennial enjoyment of this film probably has as much to do with the gags and slapstick Chase goes through leading up to Christmas Day as it does with the random funny details that come out of the woodwork more and more with each viewing. Plus excellent comedic performances by everyone involved make for a holiday movie experience worth more than a few smirks and half-hearted chuckles.
A definite recommendation for anyone in search of a classic holiday comedy you can watch over and over and over again.
Yet somehow, perhaps only by some sort of twisted Christmas miracle, Chevy Chase’s classic Christmas Vacation remains a post-Thanksgiving staple for me, and no holiday season is complete without it.
Even though Chase’s character Clark W. Griswold goes through everything from his precious Christmas tree spontaneously combusting to accidentally getting locked in his own attic for an entire day, I can’t help but participate in this insane disaster of a holiday with a many a heartfelt belly laugh.
My perennial enjoyment of this film probably has as much to do with the gags and slapstick Chase goes through leading up to Christmas Day as it does with the random funny details that come out of the woodwork more and more with each viewing. Plus excellent comedic performances by everyone involved make for a holiday movie experience worth more than a few smirks and half-hearted chuckles.
A definite recommendation for anyone in search of a classic holiday comedy you can watch over and over and over again.
23 November 2009
A Christmas Carol (2009)
Let me begin by saying that I love Charles Dickens’s classic novella “A Christmas Carol.” I’ve seen countless film adaptations of the story and it never gets old.1 I even dressed up as the unfortunate and terrible ghost of Jacob Marley for Halloween one year during high school after carefully reading the original to make sure I got the details right.
So when Robert “I shat upon the classic picture book The Polar Express by adding Tom Hanks and weird dead-eyed animated children into the mix” Zemeckis took this project on, I cringed, and not a little bit.2 But I went to see anyway it because I still love Dickens’s story, by gum. And as long as they didn’t deviate from the original plot too much, it couldn’t be all bad.
Much to my relief, it wasn’t too horrible at all. Yeah, you do have to contend with the “Ooh look at me using 3-D” moments. One too many scenes with Scrooge falling and flailing through the air for my taste. And yeah, you do have to deal with the persistently dead-eyed characters. I don’t care whether they did use retinal scanning technology to try to get rid of the dead eyes—it didn’t entirely work and the effect is alienating.
But happily the movie does deliver some of the most important pleasures of Dickens's original text. While surprisingly leaving the old style prose intact, Zemeckis nevertheless makes the effort to bring something new to the party by playing up the ghostly characters to an extreme. Plus Jim Carrey does an unexpectedly great job at interpreting many different roles, all mercifully distant from his previous less than fresh work.
Overall, not the best adaptation of Dickens’s story so far, but one which certainly promises many more yet to come. And I can't say humbug to that!
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1. Shout out to my all time favorite, The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)!!
2. Not an entirely fair assessment of Zemeckis, to be sure—he has produced, written, and directed a number of movies that I have enjoyed quite a bit. I just took The Polar Express personally because, as a child who was literally devastated by the revelation that Santa isn’t real, I clung desperately to the message of faith that was in the original text of The Polar Express. I still have the little jingle bell that came with the book.
So when Robert “I shat upon the classic picture book The Polar Express by adding Tom Hanks and weird dead-eyed animated children into the mix” Zemeckis took this project on, I cringed, and not a little bit.2 But I went to see anyway it because I still love Dickens’s story, by gum. And as long as they didn’t deviate from the original plot too much, it couldn’t be all bad.
Much to my relief, it wasn’t too horrible at all. Yeah, you do have to contend with the “Ooh look at me using 3-D” moments. One too many scenes with Scrooge falling and flailing through the air for my taste. And yeah, you do have to deal with the persistently dead-eyed characters. I don’t care whether they did use retinal scanning technology to try to get rid of the dead eyes—it didn’t entirely work and the effect is alienating.
But happily the movie does deliver some of the most important pleasures of Dickens's original text. While surprisingly leaving the old style prose intact, Zemeckis nevertheless makes the effort to bring something new to the party by playing up the ghostly characters to an extreme. Plus Jim Carrey does an unexpectedly great job at interpreting many different roles, all mercifully distant from his previous less than fresh work.
Overall, not the best adaptation of Dickens’s story so far, but one which certainly promises many more yet to come. And I can't say humbug to that!
-----
1. Shout out to my all time favorite, The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)!!
2. Not an entirely fair assessment of Zemeckis, to be sure—he has produced, written, and directed a number of movies that I have enjoyed quite a bit. I just took The Polar Express personally because, as a child who was literally devastated by the revelation that Santa isn’t real, I clung desperately to the message of faith that was in the original text of The Polar Express. I still have the little jingle bell that came with the book.
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