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…
Tag: review
The Formulaic James Proclaims New Year’s Eve Review Of The Year That Was
It’s New Years Eve and tradition dictates that I must review the year gone by for fear that no-one else will think to do it and the year would end unreviewed. Which would be a disaster. This year, the year that will be being reviewed is 2021. The best thing about 2021 was that it…
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 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 17
2013’s I Give It A Year is a sort of anti-rom-com, about a ‘happily ever after’ that doesn’t pan out the way it is supposed to. It’s an interesting concept but in many respects it plays like an actual rom-com, and it relies so much on being fed by the hand it is ostensibly trying…
The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 15
The plot of 2017 drama ‘The Wife’ does rather hinge on a twist, and it is quite a predictable twist. But just because you can spot the revelation long before it’s revealed, does not make the journey any less enjoyable. Glenn Close gives an understated but brilliant performance as the titular character, while Jonathan Pryce…
The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 13
A movie which centres around one man trapped on an island for five years definitely runs the risk of being a bit..well…dull. While such an ordeal might make a compelling narrative for a novel, it seems hard to imagine how a film with only one character for a significant portion of its running time could…
The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 12
Having included Bridget Jones Diary in last year’s Christmas(ish) movie countdown, I felt it only right that I revisit the 2004 sequel to explore its Christmas(ish) credentials. As is often the case with sequels, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is not as good as the original movie. It might even be reasonable to suggest…
The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 11
When I included 1995’s Jumanji in last year’s iteration of my advent calendar I received a couple of comments that suggested that the 2017 relaunch of the franchise might actually be one of those rare instances of a reboot being better than the original. And those comments were absolutely spot on – Jumanji: Welcome to…
The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 10
2018 action-thriller Peppermint is rarely thrilling and I’m not entirely sure why it’s called Peppermint. It often feels like a straight-to-DVD affair but I think it had a moderately successful cinematic release. Jennifer Garner stars as the vigilante out to avenge the murder of her family and, to be fair to her, she is definitely…
The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 7
2016’s La La Land has enough critical acclaim and a whole raft of awards (though it famously only held the Academy Award for Best Picture for about two minutes), so it doesn’t really matter if I liked it or not. I didn’t actually see it for the first time until August 2017, by which time…
The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 1
Unless I’m much mistaken it is now December and therefore it must be time for The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films. We kick off this year’s festive countdown with a movie from the Rocky franchise. This is the third time a Rocky movie has featured in my annual advent calendar with…
The Inevitable James Proclaims New Year’s Eve Review Of The Year That Was
Ever since I started this blog, back in 2015, I’ve posted a sort of ‘review of the year’ on the 31st of December. It’s the kind of innovative idea that has made James Proclaims the ‘go-to’ blog for literally tens of people the world over for several years now. I’m surprised nobody else does it…
The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 22
Back in 2017, when I first started doing The James Proclaims Advent Calendar Of Christmas(ish) Films I included Rocky IV in the line-up. Because it is a bit Christmassy, albeit one of the weaker entries in the Rocky franchise. It is something of an oversight then, that I managed not to include the original 1976…
May The Twenty-Sixth Be With You: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (The Series)
In all honesty, when I started this month long homage to Star Wars, I wasn’t actually planning on doing much more than writing about the nine movies of the ‘Skywalker Saga’ in episode order over the first nine days of the month. Then I thought, given that I’d seen both ‘Solo‘ and ‘Rogue One‘, I…
May The Tenth Be With You: Star Wars Holiday Special
Can you truly call yourself a Star Wars fan if you’ve never seen the 1978 ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’? Yes. Of course you can. Indeed for your own sanity, you should avoid watching this at all costs. And back before the Internet, it was easy to not watch this. It was only ever shown on…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 16
Richard Curtis is a man who divides opinions. Specifically he divides my opinions. In some respects the man achieved a God-like status in my esteem in my formative years, because he was one of the people responsible for bringing the world Blackadder. No-one linked with that peerless television programme could ever do any wrong in my…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 8
Door 8 of The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films brings us 2005’s Just Friends. Notionally a ‘rom-com’ it probably is a little more ‘com’ than ‘rom’. Which would generally make it more to my tastes. It’s not always as funny as it would like to be, but it deserves credit for effort…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 6
It’s December 6th and therefore no coincidence that it’s time to open door number 6 of The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films. And as luck would have it, we have a 2019 movie waiting for us in the not-at-all-bad Cold Pursuit. You might recall that Liam Neeson made the headlines earlier…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 3
Door 3 of The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films and what do we find. Why it’s 2015’s Tangerine. A movie shot entirely on iPhones, starring a largely unknown cast and focusing on a day in the somewhat unorthodox lives of two transgender sex-workers was not exactly top of my list of ‘must-see’ movies…
Films I Watched When I Was Younger – Issue 11: The Specialist
I saw 1994’s The Specialist in the cinema when it came out. Until recently that was the only time I’d ever seen it, so I imagine that even as a teenager I didn’t think much of it. Many years on, and when I saw it was freely available on one of the web based content…
The James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 2
It’s time for Door 2 of ‘The James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films’. Today we find Iron Man 3. Which, like yesterday’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is another Shane Black and Robert Downey Jr. collaboration. And it’s the first (and, to date, only?) movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be set during the…
The Obligatory New Year’s Eve Review Of The Year That Was
Last year I wrote a review of 2015 on the 31st December so it seems only fitting that I review 2016 today. Except that I’d rather not. It seems to be universally accepted that 2016 was a bit of a rubbish year all around. Not for everyone obviously – some people might well be thinking…
James Reviews ‘The Rentokil Advanced Fly Trap Window Sticker’
There are no flies on me. Literally. There were yesterday though. It’s unseasonably hot in the UK at the moment. I mean it’s summer so I suppose it is actually ‘seasonably’ hot but no-one really expects nice weather in Britain at any time of year and British summers are notorious for being miserable and wet.…
James Reviews 2015, Just In Case Nobody Else Remembered To Do It
Well it’s the last day of 2015 and that calls for some kind of review of the events of the past 12 months. I’m probably the only blogger that’s even thought of doing this. It’s a pretty original and exciting idea is it not?
My 2015 Blog Report
I wasn’t going to post anything today. I haven’t really got anything to write about. I’m still very much in the weird world of Twixmas, whereby I know that Christmas is ostensibly over, but there’s still a Christmas tree in my living room and lots of really unhealthy food in the house. I’m also still…
James Proclaims! 