Boristhemoggy

Noelle (Anna Kendrick) has always had to support and encourage her brother Nick (Bill Hader), who was ordained to take over as Santa. When Nick disappears right before Christmas, Noelle goes on a funny and heartfelt journey to find him and, ultimately, what Christmas is really about.

OK so, the story is the same old same old, reintroducing the Christmas spirit and saving Christmas day for the world. The costumes and sets are beautiful and reminded me of the christmas chronicles: two of the best christmas movies ever made.

The CGI was sometimes pretty poor, but overall you could not fault the christmas vibe in the film.

However, Anna Kendrick is the same one trick pony as Ryan Reynolds in every film they do: she is trying hard to be cute, witty and snappy/bossy with her comments. The same as Reynolds never changes from his Sarcastic kind of acting no matter what part he is playing.

I like Anna Kendrick in the right sort of film, and this is not the film for her. She does not act, she simply repeats the same old pattern of characteristics every time. Added to that was the obvious DEI and 'progressive' casting that ruins old tales.

Shirley McLaine was a breath of fresh air, but ultimately the film cell completely flat for me, and the comments I've made explain succinctly why it bombed at the box office. I gave it a 4 and that was mostly for the beautiful sets and costumes.

The film is about a tough cop, who after his death in the line of duty, is transported to a dystopian future, and brought back to life so he can enter a deadly combat tournament against many others who have died and been sent to the future.

Far from being futuristic, this has a solid feel of a badly done 70's film. The idea is OK I guess, but the sets and videography are very much in the vibe of the 70's, with some, frankly, pathetic attempts to pretend to be in the future, such as silly lipstick styles.

The dialogue is below par for a B movie, and the acting is on point for a B movie. There are some incredibly cringe moments in it where I actually scrunched up in my seat, in embarrassment at the editor allowing such a scene to be put out there.

It's sort of like Death Race 2000 without cars. I guess the idea could be good if Hollywood worked it's magic on it but as it stands it's actually quite a pathetic and sad film.

I gave it 2 and that's because I felt sorry for it.

Hired gunman Cole Thornton (John Wayne) turns down a job with Bart Jason (Edward Asner) as it would mean having to fight an old sheriff friend (Robert Mitchum). Some months later, he finds out the lawman is on the bottle and a top gunfighter (Christopher George) is heading his way to help Jason. Along with young Mississippi (James Caan), handy with a knife and now armed with a diabolical shotgun, Cole returns to help.

I recently watched this again, and realised how great these films were back in the day: almost 60 years ago.

The story is a typical western, all the same stories but in different settings with different people, but always seemingly fresh. With names like Wayne and Mitchum and Asner the film employed some of the best -or at least the most loved- actors of the day. James Caan also starred and he was making a huge name for himself even after just a few years in the business.

The quality of the film is amazing considering it's age. The lighting, direction, dialogue are all great and while acting has moved on in many ways, you don't seem to notice much difference when you watch these classic films.

Some of these old films are classics now and it's very refreshing to take a look back in time and rid yourself of the unnecessary technicalities and vagaries of modern cinema.

I give this a solid 7 for pure entertainment.