Thursday 29 December 2011

More Holiday Movies...

Ok, so White Christmas got a whole blog to itself, because it has been my favourite for a long time so I've got a lot to say about it. There are 3 other holiday films which I watched which I shall now discuss. They are "The Holiday", "The Christmas Shoes", and "Christmas Child". When I watch a film I'm interested in two things, the writing and the acting. Generally for me, there are three categories.
1) Great writing, bad acting.
2) Bad writing, great acting.
3) Bad writing, bad acting.

The Holiday
I really love this movie.It's just really sweet. The writing is great, not overly cutesy (ok, it's a little cutesy) and there are some true actors in it. My favourite element of the storyline is the friendship between Iris (Kate Winslet) and Arthur Abbot, a retired elderly screen-writer from the Golden Age of Hollywood. I also love love love seeing Jack Black playing a nice guy instead of a jerk/idiot. Miles is a fantastically hilarious character with a real heart and real emotions. He's "the goofy guy" who is actually really smart and caring. When does that ever happen in films?

Ok, so I am not ashamed to admit that one of my favourite parts of this film is this guy.
Great writing.
Yes, he's gorgeous, and his accent doesn't hurt, but Graham is also a great character. I love when Amanda says to him "I've never met a guy who talks more than me." He's a confident, funny, messed-up guy, made all the more attractive by the fact that he is incredibly sweet with his two adorable daughters. The dialogue between Graham and Amanda has a... bluntness... that I like. Jude's performance is amazing - even Oscar winning! That is, in comparison with his co-star...


Bad acting.
Yes, she does play a rather ditzy, selfish character who is very out of touch with herself, but Cameron plays that throughout the entire film! Even in the end when her character has undergone some change, Cameron's performance remains the same - fake. She is acting the whole time, she is not BEING. It's a romantic comedy, it's not brilliant, it's not going to the Academy Awards, but the characters are real and the dialogue is witty and she just SUCKS! I'm being merciless, I know. I'm not sorry.

I give this film, despite the performances of the other actors: Great Writing, Bad Acting.

The Christmas Shoes

Bad writing, great acting.
I consented to watch this film with much groaning, however, I was extremely pleasantly surprised. It's not brilliant writing, they definitely tried a little too hard to yank the tears out of your eyes, but the acting is actually really, really good. I love seeing great actors who are less well-known. There are also a few really well-written characters. I was enjoying the film until close to the end, when there is some slow-motion running and the song "The Christmas Shoes" takes over. I sighed a little. It was so good up until that point.
That being said, I give this film a Bad Writing, Great Acting.



Christmas Child

Bad writing. Bad acting.
I can't even talk about this film that much. Bad Writing, Bad Acting, with the exception of Megan Follows, who was the only reason I wanted to watch it. She's not in it enough to redeem it, though. I love Steven Curtis Chapman, he's a great guy and his family brought a wonderful message to the film, but he just shouldn't act. Ever. You would think the writing would be better as it's an adaptation of a Max Lucado book. I've never read the book, maybe it's bad too, I don't know, I just know that this film was bad. So very, very bad.

1 comment:

  1. Hehe I love your reviews. They're a breeze to read through but your writing has it's own quirky, brilliant style! :D

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