Good to hear it mate
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31 DAYS of CHRISTMAS - DAY 15
Yesterday, we went with UK family flick Get Santa (Smith, 2014), an unusual choice of project from Christopher Smith, the writer/director of horrors Creep (2004) and Triangle (2009), of horror/comedy Severance (2006) and of fairly horrific period piece Black Death (2010). Anyways it’s a decent enough film of its type but it’s all a bit ho-hum; good-not-great, in-keeping with the rest of Mr. Smith’s output if I’m honest. This was the first time I’d seen it but it’ll be a dead cert for next year at casa.caress, by which time I’ll have forgotten it almost entirely.
31 DAYS of CHRISTMAS - DAY 16
Tonight we’re going to give Silent Night, Deadly Night (Sellier jr., 1984) a try. I like horrors but this one has never particularly appealed to me, subsequently I’ve never seen it. Still, it fits the criteria for my feat of festive endurance, so tonight’s the (silent, deadly) night.
The Impossible Years.
David Niven plays a head shrink who seems to have the perfect lifestyle, including his children. But a serious of events in a very “dry” style we learn his children our not so much the perfect examples. Its this then which takes over the film and provides well alot of watchable moments captured in this 60’s timewarp of a film.
31 DAYS of CHRISTMAS - DAY 17
Thursday, we hit the festive TV specials once more with a fine triple-bill: Blackadder’s Christmas Carol (Boden, 1988), Knowing Me Knowing Yule with Alan Partridge (Brigstocke, 1995) and The League of Gentlemen’s Christmas Special (Bendelack, 2000). All three still make me laugh out loud.
31 DAYS of CHRISTMAS - DAY 18
Yesterday it was the turn of a movie I first saw only last year (or might’ve been the year before) but which, for me, has already cemented its position as a yuletide staple: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (Helander, 2010). Sure, it all goes a bit Goonies towards the end, and the tease of the boss-level “Santa” which never pays off seems to get more infuriating each time I see the bloody movie but, hey! THIS is still the only “Must-See” Saint Nick movie of the season as far as I’m concerned. The Santa Clause and Miracle on 34th Street can jog on.
31 DAYS of CHRISTMAS - DAY 19
Today, it’s been a meat-and-potatoes offering, with a glut of Christmas episodes of The Simpsons, including the pilot episode Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire wherein we are introduced to Bart, Homer and co. just as they are being introduced to what will become the family dog, Santa’s Little Helper. Looking at the show in 2015, it’s quite sad to look at some of those infinitely superior earlier episodes and see how warm and relatable they could be. The whole bloody show has been shambling along like a mindless zombie version of itself for a good fifteen years now, and that’s a shame. Ah well, there were some good 'uns today.
31 DAYS of CHRISTMAS - DAY 20
Yesterday, we went with another one of mrs.caress’ picks: Nativity! 3 - Dude, Where’s My Donkey?! (Isitt, 2014). Martin Clunes replaces Martin Freeman who has bailed on the franchise at this point, as have I (tbh, I’d bailed twenty minutes into the first picture, but there you go).
31 DAYS of CHRISTMAS - DAY 21
We’ve just “enjoyed” The Santa Clause (Pasquin, 1994), starring Tim Allen as a dad who accidentally kills Santa, and has to take up the reindeer reins on the big night. Well, family.caress enjoyed it anyway. This is a big holiday favourite with two-thirds of my household.
31 DAYS of CHRISTMAS - DAY 22
Yesterday we went with a huge holiday favourite of mine: I know it’s silly, and it’s not even especialy funny much of the time, but I love National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (Chechik, 1989). If it was up to me alone, this would be the movie we save for The Big Day itself. And for those paying attention, the Griswald children in this movie are played by Juliette “Natural Born Killers” Lewis and Johnny “The Big Bang Theory” Galecki who went on to become… um, Juliette “Natural Born Killers” Lewis and Johnny “The Big Bang Theory” Galecki. So there.
31 DAYS of CHRISTMAS - DAY 23
Today… We’re not having a Christmas movie. Not just because we’re giving up for a day or anything, but because our pick for today, Arthur Christmas (Smith/Cook, 2011), was on the telly a couple of days ago, and we watched it then. And I’m not bastard-well watching it again, I can tell you that (I guess that’s something of an indicator as to how I found it the first time).
31 DAYS of CHRISTMAS - DAY 24
Called an audible as our American friends tend to say, and made a last-second change to today’s movie. We were supposed to be sitting down to The Muppet Christmas Carol (Henson, 1992) today, and the still-magical It’s a Wonderful Life (Capra, 1946) on the 27th. But, the Capra masterpiece was airing on the telly here in the UK today and, well, I simply couldn’t resist. So Clarence got his wings today and we shall be joining Michael Caine and his muppet friends for a little turkey dinner on Sunday.
Christmas Vacation was on TV today too, and we watched it all over again even though we only watched it two days ago.
31 DAYS of CHRISTMAS - DAY 25
I’m getting a day ahead here for obvious reasons but the film we’ve chosen as THE film for The Big Day is Jon Favreau’s modern classic, Elf (2003) starring Will Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenburgen, Bob Newhart and featuring the late great Ed Asner as Santa. It’s the far-and-away favourite festive movie for my son and for mrs.caress and, although it’s not my absolute favourite (that would be one of either of the two I saw today OR the muppet film, I can’t decide between those three) it is right up there among the best imo, for sure.
Have a great day, everybody!
Hehe, Natalie Portman got a gun and she will be letting us see what she’s going to do with it! … lol
Is that a gun or are you just happy to see Jane?
Remake of Hanny Caulder? They say it is influenced by that movie.
I may see suicide squad for the third time. I’ll begin with what I didn’t like about the film. First off for 160 + million dollar budgeted project, I would have think the film editing team would be the finest around. This is however not the case, and I found the editing to be among the worst I’ve ever seen in any film. It looked like it was being editied by folks who’ve never editied anything before. Also I thought the director was trying to cram ten hours worth of information into a two hour and ten minute film. He trie’s to tell multiple backstories through flashback’s and the results are NOT good. I think It would have been better as a T.V. miniseries, with a proper introduction of each member of the “suicide squad” as well as a proper villian. The performance’s and soundtrack save the film from being among the worst super hero film’s ever made. Harely Quinn is among the most beatiful and dangerous women I’ve seen on screen, and Will Smith capture’s the deadshot character pretty well. What could have been a giant leap forward is in fact only a small step forward.
Cool!!
One of my favourite movies, this.
Akira has great visuals for 1988, and good action. But the plot doesnt really excite or interest me 
Shame on me maybe, but I turned it off after a while
Robocop?
Surprisingly it is often bad and mostly very boring. Some fun in the early scenes.
Anche per Django le carogne hanno un prezzo (1971) and Trinita e Sartana figli di… puttana! (1972), OMG, so funny. The latter movie must be hilarious. If I don’t reappear in a couple of hours, it will mean I didn’t make it. Wish me luck.
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Oh, these endure fests featuring spaghs. Only one who live through it can tell how harsh it can be. We should be celebrated as heroes by public.
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