Another agreement on “White Christmas” being not only a bad movie, but a bad Christmas movie as well. It was just on AMC last night, and along with being reminded how terrible the movie is, I noticed something that I had never noticed before. In the number Betty (Rosemary Clooney) sings solo (after she leaves the sister and Bing), one of the dancers in the number is George Charkiris (sp ?) from “West Side Story” ! I had never noticed that before.
The rest of the movie is just so…plastic. I especially like how all the (now) veterans from the general’s old command are still intact - no missing arms/legs, no wheelchairs, and just one guy who is overweight so he can’t clasp the belt on his old GI pants ! Very realistic !
The “Arnold Rimmer’s psyche-damaged” version from the Red Dwarf novel “Better than Life”…
Lister’s living the idylic life of George Bailey, married to Krissie Kochanski, twins Jim and Bexley, everything seems perfect until Rimmer shows up…
He had spent time in a Sound Prison for Thoughtwaves due to his lease running out on his own hard-light holographic, he was caught up in a prison break with other holograms, when they went to transfer into hard light holobodies, Rimmer found that his body had been hijacked by a lowlife scumbag, so he had to transfer his consciousness into the body of a buxom holographic hooker, “Trixie LaBouche”, suffering abuse and humiliation, he decided to try and find Lister and try to escape BTL
Rimmer-Trixie comes barreling into Bedford falls in an out of control fuel tanker, ends up blowing up half the town, makes Krissie think that Dave had been cheating on her, she leaves him and takes the kids, and the townspeople of Bedford Falls (the survivng ones, that is) all shun him and leave him, alone in the company of Trixie-Rimmer and surrounded by the smouldering remains of Bedford Falls…
Mrs. Cad told me that as we were watching and I said I knew that, pointed him out and told her that he had an Academy Award which she did NOT know so I won.
I hate the woe-is-me general and the “choreography” dance scene just drags the movie down. And maybe thing were ifferent back then but the whole sisters thing just seems a little off to me.
So no one knows the name of the movie I first talked about? C’mon SD, I’ve given you 8 years.
To add to the list, saw one where a woman took/kidnapped the kids of her drug-abusing sister to evade CPS. A Season for Miracles.
Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer is the kind of cheap badly animated children schlock that permeated the airwaves in the late 90’s as a result of the cable TV boom where everybody was trying to get their own animated Christmas Special “Classic”. Remember that really bad novelty song? Well now it has it’s own full length movie that serves only as an excuse for the songwriter to shoehorn in a bunch of his other much less successful songs because no-one else was willing to listen to them. It pretty much is every “modern” children’s Christmas special, all about Santa Claus getting sued/arrested and only had kid can free him to save Christmas. Stilted animation, boring story, completely out-of-nowhere musical sequences, and most of all it’s filled with horrendously bad puns.
The only interesting thing in the entire movie is that the rich evil businessman you see at the beginning turns out to actually be an honest reasonable person at the end, which is the only new thing this movie brings to the formula.
Yeah. I watched it with my daughter when she was 6, and she also loathed it. It’s where she learned the meaning of the phrase “uncanny valley.” The storyline is awful, but the animation is actually slightly scary.
That’s what I came in here to mention. Especially because it sort of starts off OK and then ends up being about horrible bullying and overconsumption, but presents that as a good thing about Christmas.
Yep!
I love Santa Claus the movie and don’t get the hate for it. The kids are sweet, John Lithgow chews the scenery in an entertaining way, Dudley Moore has an interesting storyline.
Is there some sort of cottage industry that cranks out Hallmark Channel quality christmas movies? There seems to be 2 or 3 different ones on every day.
I think that’s a bit strong… Elf is far from awesome, but it’s right around mediocre. A bit schmaltzy, a bit cringey, but relative to other Christmas-themed movies, it’s not so bad really. I think it’s a relative thing. And Zooey Deschanel was at her peak adorableness when the movie came out, so that probably helps a whole lot.
I thought looking bored/annoyed was kind of like Bob Newhart’s schtick. I didn’t really notice him as being particularly out of character as Buddy’s (Farrell) elfin father.
You’re right though, Caan didn’t seem to want to be there at all.
The Hallmark Channel is basically dedicated to showing awful Christmas movies for several months a year. No need to dig to find them, just check the Hallmark Channel TV listing.
In November/December, and in July. They are basically the cinematic equivalent of trashy romance novels, except that they’re so wholesome that it’s painful.
Hallmark-quality Christmas movies aren’t all bad; I have a sister who’d watch them 24/7 if she could, so I get exposed to them whenever I visit. ION runs similar movies this time of year; I caught one because it was on my DVR and I have it set to automatically record certain actors.
Anyway, if you search on “RedLetterMedia Christmas”, you get their annual holiday-themed reviews shows where the guys watch, laugh at and are occasionally horrified by terrible movies. Their episode dedicated to the Star Wars Holiday Special.
