It’s Christmas Eve again, and therefore time once more to bring an end to my annual Christmas Countdown of films that are a bit Christmas(ish). You’d imagine that after six years of this pointless lunacy that I would finally have fun out of movies but, alas, I already have another 24 lined up for next…
Tag: film review
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 23
2019’s Jumanji: The Next Level is the sequel to 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which is, in itself, both a reboot and sequel of sorts to the original Jumanji. It may help to have seen the previous Jumanji movies to enjoy the 2019 offering, but it’s not really necessary. The Jumanji movies know who…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 22
2020’s Wonder Woman 1984 may not be as good as 2017’s Wonder Woman but it’s by no means the worst entry in the DC Extended Universe. Which may be faint praise, given some of the abominations that have been churned out under the umbrella of that particular franchise. But Wonder Woman was a great movie…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 21
Compared to the largely coherent Marvel Cinematic Universe, the DC Extended Universe has always seemed a bit shambolic and rushed. Which isn’t to say there haven’t been some good movies to come out of the project. My Christmas Eve entry for the 2019 iteration my advent calendar was the rather excellent Shazam, which is technically…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 20
It’s pretty much accepted wisdom that every even numbered Star Trek movie is good and every odd numbered Star Trek movie is bad. It’s not actually true anymore, though it is a little more true when you only consider the movies starring the cast from the original series. I still think that’s both a little…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 19
The original 1972 version of The Poseidon Adventure is infinitely better than the 2006 ‘reimagining’ of the story. It is still, fundamentally, a popcorn disaster movie, that requires a certain amount of suspended disbelief, and clearly the special effects are no match for the remake, but the advantage the original has over the subsequent version…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 18
Danny DeVito’s 1989 black comedy reunites him with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner after their successful collaborations in Romancing the Stone and The Jewell of the Nile. The War of the Roses is quite a departure from those earlier movies but none the less enjoyable for it. Having absolutely nothing to do with the actual…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 17
Few actors divide opinion as much as Nicholas Cage. Is he a gifted actor, as indicated by his numerous awards or is he, in fact, a really bad actor?. Those arguing the latter case need look no further than 1994’s abomination of a comedy Trapped In Paradise. Which is not a good movie. At all.…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 16
The Expendables franchise may not be everyone’s cup of tea but it could never be accused of pretending to be anything that it isn’t. An unashamed homage to the action movies of the 80s and 90s (with a cast that for the most part were the stars of those of movies and who had seen…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 15
1995 teen comedy Clueless just happened to come out when I was still a teenager, so I was quite possibly its target audience at the time. I tended to be more into action movies back then, but I did see this a few times and I quite liked it. It also meant that when I…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 14
I know, objectively, that 2012’s The Perks of being a Wallflower is not a bad film. Indeed there is quite a lot to recommend it, not least the performances of the lead actors. But I didn’t particularly enjoy it. I doubt it was aimed at me, and that’s fine, but actually ‘not being the target…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 13
2012’s DreamWorks feature Rise of the Guardians is a fun little adventure movie that doesn’t require a great deal of effort on the part of the viewer. Indeed, it’s all quite prosaic from a storytelling perspective, but it looks great, and has a voice-cast that is nothing short of stellar. Really its USP is the…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 12
The 34th cinematic offering from Walt Disney Animation Studios was a strange choice, given the type of movies that had preceded it. Nineteenth Century French Gothic literature doesn’t automatically lend itself as source material to an animated movie aimed at children, and while there are certainly dark elements in other Disney movies, Victor Hugo’s The…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 11
2011’s Bad Teacher is not as funny as it promises to be and also boasts a fairly predictable plot. But if you lower your expectations enough, then it can be a fairly diverting, if unmemorable, 97 minutes. If nothing else, it’s worth watching for Cameron Diaz’ performance as the eponymous educator and it’s credit to…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 10
I didn’t really expect to enjoy 2015’s Daddy’s Home, but surprisingly didn’t hate it. It even made the cut for last year’s Christmas countdown. But I really only watched that movie to prepare myself for the sequel, the imaginatively named Daddy’s Home 2, which I knew would eventually find its way into an iteration of…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 9
1944’s The Curse of the Cat People is notionally a sequel to the 1942 horror movie Cat People. And it does help to have seen the first movie, to fully appreciate this one, but they are quite different, although equally bonkers. Cat People should really have been called Cat Person, given that the central character,…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 8
2018’s biopic of Dick Cheney, Vice, is an interesting movie. I’m not sure if it’s a good movie, although it undeniably has some incredible performances from the actors and possibly the most talented hair and make up team in the world. You can still recognize Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Sam Rockwell and Steve Carell, but…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 7
2013’s About Time has all the hallmarks of a Richard Curtis film, and that is almost certainly because it is a Richard Curtis film. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing in equal measure. Curtis can be relied upon to inject his movies with plenty of humour and there is no doubt…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 6
Of all the movies in the Rocky franchise, Rocky III is probably my third favourite. It’s hard to beat the original Rocky which is just a great film, while it’s also impossible to ignore the iconic status of Rocky IV, objectively bad though it may be. Rocky III definitely paves the way for the bombastic…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 5
Despite the fact that Arthurian legend seems to be the perfect source material for a Hollywood epic, there really aren’t too many King Arthur movies that spring to mind. At least not good ones. And much as I love Monty Python and The Holy Grail, it is a damning indictment of the general failure to…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 4
Orson Welles’ 1941 masterpiece Citizen Kane is oft described as the greatest movie ever made. I can only assume that the people making that claim have never seen Star Wars but I will concede, that even without a lightsaber in sight for the near 2-hour running time, Citizen Kane is a remarkable achievement. I’m hardly…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 3
1996’s 101 Dalmatians is technically the second ‘live action’ remake of an earlier animated feature if you consider 1994’s The Jungle Book to be the original. Although that movie bears very little resemblance to the 1967 cartoon classic and Disney did do another live action version of The Jungle Book in 2016 that is far…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 2
2019’s ‘live action’ update of Disney’s Lady and the Tramp doesn’t have any offensive racial caricatures masquerading as cats, which is a notable improvement, but otherwise it’s generally inferior to the original. That is pretty much the case with all the Disney ‘live action’ remakes. So failing to live up to the original animated classic…
The Sixth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Preamble
For much of 2022 I have been absent from this blog. This has predominantly been due to the fact that I became a dad for the second time in April and I have spent most of this year feeling pretty tired. It turns out that having two children is a bit more work than having…
The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 24
Another Christmas Eve is upon us. Thus I must conclude my annual homage to movies which aren’t necessarily Christmas films, but which could, nonetheless, be considered a bit Christmas(ish). As of this post, I have entered 120 films into this most prestigious ‘Hall of Fame’ and I’ve already got another 24 lined up for next…
The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 23
I’ve been meaning to watch 1934’s The Thin Man ever since I started doing this pointless annual festive film countdown. I knew it would make the cut, but it was seemingly always ‘out of print’; I couldn’t find a copy of the movie that wasn’t ludicrously expensive so my ambitions were thwarted. Fortunately this year…
The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 22
1944 musical Meet Me In St. Louis is a film about a family that really like living in St. Louis. I don’t think it would be too disingenuous to claim that it’s not really about much else. There are a few subplots involving the love lives of the older siblings and some others involving the…
The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 21
The 1991 incarnation of The Adams Family was my introduction to that creepiest and kookiest of families. Indeed, although I’m sure I saw the 1993 sequel, Adams Family Values, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any other iteration of the franchise. Which is strange, because I really loved this movie when it came out. I’m…
The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 20
I’ve never read the 1969 novel, The Poseidon Adventure but it must be pretty good because it has been adapted three times for the screen. Although up until 2005 there was only one adaptation, which was the 1972 movie of the same name. I’ve never seen that either, but I’d have thought one adaptation of…
The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 19
I had no interest in watching 1995’s While You Were Sleeping. Ever. I haven’t entirely swerved rom-coms in my annual advent compendium of movies that are slightly Christmas(ish) but the ones I have included have, by and large, been movies I’d already seen. Because sometimes I have to watch rom-coms. It’s part of the deal…
The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 18
I often have misgivings about movies that are based on real life events, and similar misgivings about movies that win ‘Best Picture’ at the Academy awards. While they can be relied upon to be thought-provoking and powerful, they can also be a little bit hard going. I had no doubt that 2018’s Green Book would…
James Proclaims! 