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Reviews
Spirited (2022)
Great Idea, Okay Result
I've been laid up with a broken leg, so perhaps that may account for a bit of my restlessness, but this movie is flat out way too long! Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds are both great at being Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds in most things. Elf is my favorite Christmas Movie and that's nearly entirely because of Ferrell and the stealth genius of Favreau. (okay, and Bob Newhart and Zooey Deschanel)
This rewarding of celebrities that can carry a tune, by offering them a lead in a musicals should really stop. This really should've been called, "Fa La La Land", as not one lead could hold a note for more than a second, unless it was featured as a party trick and the end of the songs. This gave a sameness to most of the numbers, (although, "Good Afternoon" was a hoot) and showed Reynolds to have pitch but not musical training at all. That goes double for tap numbers, so carefully filmed, in an attempt to obscure that those 3 months of crash-course lessons was a year too short. Oh, and speaking of filming, these musical numbers are easily the most chaotic and random I've ever seen on film. Giant wide shots galore and seemingly not focus on anyone or anything in particular.
I get celebs are needed to bring in the big buck, its what has almost ruined B'way and the Tonys for the past 25 years, but just brining Octavia Spencer in isn't enough. There have got to be big names with big musical talent, and if there aren't..... this could've easily worked better as a shorter, non-musical comedy. Didn't hate it, wouldn't watch it again.
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
So Much Better than the Original
I was never a Top Gun fan. My boyfriend wanted to rent it years ago and I found his love for it troubling. (Perhaps a precursor to our relationship's demise!). I saw TG Maverick and was floored that I enjoyed it so much.
Tim Cruise's performance was so unexpectedly restrained and there was a lot more heart than the slow-moving macho competition of the original.
What I didn't really notice until later was that this was basically a retelling of Star Wars:A New Hope (which means The Force Awakens too) Everything about the mission mimics the attack on the Deathstar to a T. Now that's not in any way a deal breaker, but I think Lucas should get a story credit.
Great flying/action sequences, a more nuanced Cruise, I'm a fan of Teller and a superior script from the original. The only slight fail was the sibling-esque chemistry between Cruise and Connolly, which is also very Luke and Leia.
A Christmas Karen (2022)
A low-budget, paint-by-numbers bore. Bah humdrum!
You'll probably recognize the titular Karen from her carvana ads and there's a reason that's the level of celebrity you'll find in this movie. She's clearly got a nice presence but there's a sameness that settles in, and there's very little to care about in her portrayal, not an easy feat for any Scrooge substitute, especially as written here. This watches like a third-rate hallmark embarrassment, but written by a college sketch writer, where everyone is two-dimensional, and actual human behavior takes a back seat to accommodate a lot of bits that strain for payoffs we've seen a thousand times elsewhere. Karen's car hits a kid in a bike and her concern is over a possibly scratched front bumper. Hilarious.
We rented this because of the positive revues, which seriously had to have been written by someone in it or a relative of the same. If I'd have seen this at a movie theater I, like Karen, would've demanded to see the supervisor for a refund.