Holiday In The Wild: A Testament To The Star Power Of Rob Lowe

Holiday In The Wild is a Christmas based romantic comedy film directed by Ernie Barbarash. We go on a deeply personal journey as we follow Kate (Kristen Davis), a woman who is dumped by her husband the second her son goes off to college. Now with nothing to do Kate has to rediscover her passions, as such she goes to Africa to become a vet to elephants. Of course this leads to romance.

So, recently I have been through several of these Netflix Christmas films and to a large degree they all blend together. However, with that in mind I found myself enjoying this one more than the others. I think it was purely the charm of Rob Lowe.

I enjoyed the romance of this film. I found it to be handled well and with care, I enjoyed seeing these two broken people, cliché I know, come together, and open themselves up to each other. I thought the leads had strong on-screen chemistry together, which in turn made their romance believable.

Another thing I will give this film props for over Netflix’s other Christmas output is that the drama felt organic to the story and not shoe horned in. Too often both Christmas films and rom coms in generally will have very blatant artificial drama forced in for no real story purpose other than for the couple to have something to overcome, this is a hallmark of a poorly written script. However, in this case the drama makes sense and feels necessary for the story.

Overall, though this won’t be winning any awards any time soon, it is quite charming, and the romance is sweet enough to keep you invested.

Pros.

The plot and it’s structure

The romance

Rob Lowe

Cons.

Cliché ridden

Incredibly generic

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

Christmas Made To Order: Catching Feelings Quickly And Hard

Christmas Made To Order is a Christmas film directed by Sam Irvin. The plot sees overly stressed architect Stephen (Johnathan Bennett), hire the free spirited, Christmas loving Gretchen (Alexa Penavega), to decorate his home for the arrival of his perfectionist family as you can imagine a romance blooms.

So, this is yet another generic Hallmark rom-com Christmas film; the kind that litters Netflix this time of year. However, where this improves on something like Operation Christmas Drop (Review coming soon), is that the romance actually feels warm and wholesome rather than cold and detached.

This is down in no small part to Penavega, who though she isn’t a big-name actor is slumming it a bit here, but hey we all need an easy pay check here and there. Penavega, is the life and soul of this film and her character’s love of Christmas comes off and authentic, which in turns makes it infectious.

My main and most obvious issue with this film would be that it runs the risk and indeed is overly sentimental. For the most part it is just the right levels of wholesome and sweet, but sometimes it goes a bit too far. The idea of this relationship is already beyond plausibility in a lot of ways, but this just pushes it further.

Overall, it is inoffensive holiday fluff, made better by Penavega and the wholesome charm.

Pros.

Penavega

The romance

It is comforting and fairly inoffensive

Cons.

It is a bit too mushy

It is very average

It has no real plot
2.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Christmas Land: A World Of Limited Imagination

Christmas Land is a Christmas romantic comedy directed by Sam Irvin. The plot sees a busy big city woman Jules (Nikki Deloach), inherit her Grandmothers Christmas themed farm, there is a debate as to whether she will sell it or not, but deep down she knows what her Grandmother would want.

So these generic Netflix/Hallmark/CBS Christmas films are starting to get to me. They are all very much the same in story and nature and you can guess the reveals coming from a mile off. I can no longer find things to enjoy about these films as they are just so tediously average.

The romance in this one was particularly wooden, sometimes these types of films can be made slightly more bearable by a strong lead romance, but not this. The two romantic leads act like strangers for most of the film and then all of a sudden they love each other at the end? Come on really? I can’t quite come up with the right word to describe their relationship, but whatever the opposite of chemistry is that is what they have.

The drama here once again, did not feel organic to the story it felt forced. That could be said for pretty much everything in these films, but this one especially had no need for the drama plotline beats, it added nothing and only served to needlessly complicate the narrative.

Pros.

It is watchable

Cons.

It is generic

It is lazy

The romance doesn’t work

The drama adds nothing

0.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Holidate: Netflix’s Sexist Holiday Film, ‘A Woman Can Only Be Happy If She Is In A Relationship’

Holidate is a Christmas themed romantic comedy directed by John Whitesell. The plot sees a couple of single people (Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey), start spending the holidays together, to throw off the bad societal conotation of spending the holidays alone. Obviously, as the film goes on they start expressing romantic feelings towards one another.

This film is awful it may be one of the worst films of 2020 in my opinion, it is offensive. So, not only does this film push almost every stereotype under the sun, it also has a lot of very troubling notions about women and their place in society. Firstly, a big deal is made because Robert’s character is not looking for a man and because she has been without one for 6 months, the horror. Secondly, the male lead pretty much cheats on her during the film and during the emotional resolution of the film she apologies to him for overreacting, pardon me what?

I understand this is a rom-com, but that narrative that you can’t be happy alone and that women, especially, need a man to be happy is toxic as hell and it is the central theme of this film. Whoever wrote this film should be fired and not allowed to work again.

Roberts if fun and likeable, she is the only positive note about this film. The male lead is incredibly bland and forgettable, I can’t remember his name right now.

Overall, this may be the most sexist out of touch Christmas movie I have ever seen.

Pros.

Emma Roberts

Cons.

It is sexist

It promotes bad messages

It furthers stereotypes

The ending is wrong

1/5

Reviewed by Luke

Operation Christmas Drop: Army Porn

Operation Christmas Drop is a romantic comedy Christmas film directed by Martin Wood. The plot sees congressional aid Erica (Kat Graham), travel to a US Army base in Guam to decide whether keeping it open is cost effective. Whilst there she falls in love with handsome, saintly, soldier Andrew (Alexander Ludwig). The two then help to give all the native islanders a great Christmas.

The biggest issue with this film is how into the army it is. I am by no means knocking the armed forces in America or anywhere in the world, but at the same time you don’t want to watch a film that sucks up to them for too long either, to a point this is basically an enlisting advert.

The romance is sweet, not to a sickening point, but it is also nothing special. You have seen this love story before, a lot of times before and believe me it hasn’t gotten any fresher. The odd thing about this film is how conservative it is with the romance, opting to not even have the characters really kiss. I get it is trying to be family friendly but come on.

Overall, this is passably watchable, no Knight Before Christmas or a Christmas Prince, but still worth your time if you have nothing better on.

Pros.

It is watchable

It is fairly upbeat

Cons.

The romance is predictable and familiar

It feels like an army recruitment ad

It is too safe and family friendly

2/5

Reviewed by Luke

Mary Poppins Returns: Everyone’s Favourite Nanny Comes Back!

‘Mary Poppins Returns’ is a musical comedy fantasy film it serves as a belated sequel to the 1964 film. The plot this time around sees everyone’s favourite nanny return to teach the next generation of Banks children, how to have fun. The characters of original Banks children are in this film though they’re not played by the same actors.

I have never counted myself as a Mary Poppins fan, I know that it is a very popular film, but it never appealed to me personally. Now that I’ve said that, let’s get into the review.

I think this film has been rather unfairly written off, many people had very high expectations when the sequel was announced, and I believe no matter how good this film was, it would never live up.

I think this film has a lot of charm and all of it, and I mean all of it, comes from Emily Blunt. Blunt plays the new iteration of Mary Poppins and seems to be loving every minute, she has charm and class to spare and lives up to, if not eclipsis, Julie Andrews from the original film. Not only that, but Blunt can also hold her own when it comes to singing, she is fantastic in every song she is in; especially the lamplighter themed one in the second act.

I think on the whole the songs in this film are good, they’re catchy and memorable, without becoming annoying. Though this isn’t true of the film’s first musical number ‘(Underneath the) Lovely London Sky’ which is the worst song in the entire film as it feels like it goes on and on and won’t end; this opens the film on a bad note.

The plot of the film is fine, the Bank’s have to find some shares in the bank so, their house doesn’t get taken away from them. It is serviceable if a little uninspired. It completely wastes the talents of Colin Firth, who is the film’s villain as he is incredibly boring and one-note. The one good thing Firth’s villain does is allow for us to see Dick Van Dyke return, which admittedly is a crowd-pleasing moment.

Overall this film lives only because of how good Emily Blunt is in the role, it has nothing else going for it, in many ways it seems like money was the only thing that made Mary Poppins Return.

Ps. Don’t even get me started on Meryl Steep as Topsy, for another time.

Pros.
Most Of The Music.
Emily Blunt.
Dick Van Dyke’s Return.

Cons.
The Opening Song.
The Plot Of The Film.
Wasting Colin Firth.

3/5

Reviewed By Luke.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas: The Grinch Is Coming For Your Presents

‘How The Grinch Stole Christmas’ is a Christmas fantasy comedy-drama film based on the Dr. Seuss book of the same name. The plot of the film follows The Grinch, a character who has removed himself from the town of Whoville and, now lives in a lair up in the mountains. The Grinch hates the town’s people for laughing at him years ago and, the townspeople fear The Grinch because he is not like them. This mutual ill will comes to a head and, The Grinch plans to steal all the presents from the people of Whoville to teach them a lesson; effectively stealing Christmas from them.

Now before we get into the review in earnest, I want to say that I have never liked anything related to Dr. Seuss I find the need to have nearly everything rhyme off-putting, I feel likewise about the strange character designs. As such I never grew up with these stories, so before I watched this, I was unaware of who The Grinch was; yes I understood what he was in passing from pop culture, but I had never seen his film before.

The issues that I had mentioned before with the character designs and the need to constantly be rhyming are in full effect in this film, which lessens my enjoyment with it, but I have to say a near-perfect performance by the one and, only Jim Carrey wins me over.
Carrey plays the titular Grinch and, he is going full Carrey, by that I mean he is giving this his everything, all of his manic energy and, it really pays dividends.

The film works as a Christmas film in that it has a nice positive message of not judging other people and, that everyone can have a chance of redemption no matter how wicked; this film did make me feel the Christmas spirit. Not only does it works as a Christmas film but, also as a comedy film as it is quite funny at times, the musical number being an example of this, it should generate a chuckle or two.

My one issue with the film is the same issue I have with a lot of others, excluding The Grinch himself the rest of the characters aren’t developed at all, even Cindy Lou, (Taylor Momsen), who is a leading character isn’t given much to do except drive The Grinch’s character development along.

Overall, despite my own personal feelings on Dr Seuss, I can see why so many people love this film, Carrey is fantastic and, it is genuinely sweet and funny at times; it even managed to win round a Seuss hater like me.

Pros.
Carrey
The Spirit Of Christmas

Cons.
The Annoying Rhyming
The Weird Character designs.

3.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Better Watch Out: A Master Killer In The Making

Better Watch Out is a psychological horror film about a babysitter who is taken, hostage by the child she is babysitting.

I had this on my list of Christmas films to watch, though now having watched it I can safely say it has absolutely nothing to do with the season itself, apart from being set around that time, so this really isn’t a Christmas film.

The plot of the film is incredibly obvious, the audience, as well as Ashley, (Olivia DeJonge), in the film, are supposed to believe that a mysterious unseen force is trying to break into the house to kill Ashley and, the young teen she is babysitting Luke, (Levi Miller). However, it is clear to see from the moment he is introduced that Luke is a bad apple, it is also clear to see that he has an unhealthy fixation with Ashley; making multiple attempts to seduce her.

So when the inevitable twist happens and, it turns out the break-in was staged by Luke and his friend Garrett, (Ed Oxenbould), to once again try and, seduce Ashley it is in no way surprising. What follows then is a series of events that simply couldn’t happen and, the way the film explains Luke getting away with them all is that he is super smart; yet he commits a series of murders without wearing gloves, so he is leaving fingerprints everywhere, and then gets away with it at the end of the film. This to me just reeks of bad, convenient writing.

Whats more Miller is very hateable as a child psychopath who thinks he is the best thing since sliced bread, almost too much so. However, we as an audience are trained to want to see these kinds of people fail and, be punished for there evil ways, but the end of this film subverts, that expectation. Not in a good way that is clever but, rather in a way that is incredibly frustrating and, anti-climatic. The ending is that he gets away with everything because he is so smart; there is a tease of maybe he will get found out, but that is all it is a tease. This film seems to want you to root for Luke, showing how smart he is and, how perfectly planned out he has everything, this feels off especially when the character you should be rooting for Ashley is barely developed, her plot worthy characteristics are who she use to date.

Overall this film is frustrating as it set’s rules and, then 5 minutes later it breaks them. It seems to glorify a budding serial killer, and completely ignore its main character.

Pros
Good Gore
It Is Nice To See The Kid From The Visit Again

Cons
Logic
Miller Is Too Good
The Way The Film Treats Its Main Character

1/5

Reviewed By Luke

It’s A Wonderful Life: Everyone Needs A Guardian Angle

‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ is a Christmas fantasy drama film, the plot follows George Bailey, (James Stewart), throughout his life as he endeavors to do good and, keep Bailey Savings and Loan afloat. The drama of the film comes when 8000 dollars goes missing and, George looks to be arrested, at this point George is on the edge of committing suicide, but when things seem bleakest he meets an Angel called Clarence, (Henry Travers), who shows George what the world would be like if he was never born.

This film very much like ‘A Miracle On 34th Street’ is widely regarded as a Christmas classic and, that is for a good reason.
The feel-good message that everyone, no matter your circumstance, can have a huge impact on the world by showing kindness to others is incredibly seasonally appropriate. It is a message that reminds us that we should always be happy with what we have and, that though cliche the greatest joys in life don’t come from wealth or things, but rather the people around us.

The acting in the film is all well done Stewart and, Travers are excellent as the two main characters, but there are also a lot of fantastic side and, background characters that have moments to shine. My one issue with this is that though they have their moments to shine these side characters often feel very one note, very much an afterthought.

The dramatic elements are strong in this film as George’s life is very up and, down and, he is put through the wringer. At no point do these dramatic moments feel manipulative or, melodramatic rather they hit the nail on the head and feel genuine and earnest; striking an emotional chord with us the audience.

My other and, more significant issue with this film is that it has quite severe pacing issues. The part of the film wherein George wishes he was never born and, meets Clarence and, goes to the alternative world doesn’t happen until about 50 minutes into the film. Therein for me lies the problem, I understand the need to set the scene and, introduce the characters, but 50 minutes seems like a bit much and, it really makes this opening section of the film feel too dragged out and, too long; feeling almost overindulgent at times.

Overall despite some minor faults, its too long and, the side characters aren’t developed enough, this still captures the real meaning of the season better than any other film and, is worthy of the title of a Christmas classic.

Pros.
Meaning For The Season.
Impactful Drama.
Good Leads.

Cons.
Underdeveloped Characters.
Pacing Issues.

3.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Bad Santa 2: Santa Is Back In Town

‘Bad Santa 2′ is a Christmas black comedy, crime film. The plot this time around follows on from that of the first film, after an undetermined amount of time, Willie, (Billy Bob Thornton), is back at the end of his rope, quite literally, and the thing that saves him is getting a call from his old friend Marcus, (Tony Cox), offering him a chance to make 2 million dollars. The job this time around sees the pair stealing from a charity, what’s more seasonally wholesome than that, which is run by Diane, (Christina Hendricks) and her Husband Regent, (Ryan Hansen). The pair are also joined on this job by Willie’s mother Sunny, (Kathy Bates), who has a strained, to say the least relationship with her son.

This film isn’t as good as the first film, don’t get me wrong I still like it, but like many other needless belated sequels this film doesn’t ever really justify its existence, Moreover, though the new characters provide for some good laughs, Hendricks’ especially, they water the film down to a degree; spreading it too thin.

The carrying over relationships from the first film are expanded upon here, Willie and Marcus are still warring brothers this time around both being there for one another and, also prepared to double-cross the other at every turn. Marcus gets his own subplot this time around about him trying to sleep with security guard Gina, (Jenny Zigrino), which makes for interesting viewing and, a few good humorous scenes. Also, Thurman, (Brett Kelly), returns he is now grown up and, seemingly unable to live his own life; literally moving halfway across the country to find Willie and, then proceeding to live at a homeless shelter because Willie won’t put him up. The ending of this film gives us a nice happy resolution for the pair as Willie basically adopts him and, finally sees Thurman as family; which is sweet.

In terms of the newer characters, not a whole lot is done with them, Kathy Bates is mostly wasted, she gives a little bit of colour to Willie’s earlier life and, then in a twist everyone saw coming ends up being the real villain of the film. Hendricks, on the other hand, is charming and, funny as a wife in a loveless marriage who starts sleeping with Willie on the side, if they did a third film which it looks like they won’t, but if they did it would be nice to see her return.

Overall this film is still the same charming, black-hearted, Christmas comedy film that the first one was, but maybe to a lesser degree. The newer characters seem short-changed but, the returning characters get satisfying resolutions.

Pros.
Hendricks.
Tieing Up The Character Arcs From The First Film.
Still Hilarious.
Still Has A Strong Heart.

Cons.
The Newer Characters Are Mostly Short Changed.

4/5

Reviewed by Luke