Oh angsty Christmas. This movie is well thought out both as a comedy and drama. The world building is both enormous in scale and efficiently done.
Score: 0.5
Characters
With the exception of Bryony and Mrs. Claus, I find the majority of the characters annoying. It’s not a flaw of the writing, but more a necessity for the character’s growth. That doesn’t mean I don’t spend a large portion of the movie stopping myself from yelling at the screen.
Score: 0.5
Dialogue
Extremely well acted with unique vocal traits and some great lines. Overall the dialogue is smart, well thought out, and very funny.
I’ve watched this now in Quebec French and in English and both are fantastic.
Score: 1
Visuals and Music
The animation is starting to show it’s age but is still impressive. Lots of background visual gags and the whole thing is quite pretty.
The music is acceptable but nothing special.
Score: 0.5
Fun
I enjoy the movie and I don’t. It’s a lot of angst and a lot of awkward but it does end all nice and fuzzy. There’s also a lot of fun and funny bits.
Score: 0.5
Overall
A Christmas story that revels in it’s worldbuilding without getting boring. The characters grow and angst their way through a heartwarming story with plenty of laughs.
This is one of my favourite sub-genres; the transported into a movie movies. (I reviewed Teen Beach Party that falls in the same sub-genre.)
Post-wish, the story follows the traditional Christmas movie tropes with a lot of wry commentary. At times it was ridiculously cheesy. The story itself was passible and held a few tiny surprises.
Score: 0.5
Characters
The stereotypes of the Christmas movie world were amped up at the beginning and slowly started to become grounded as the movie moved forward. I really enjoyed the lampshading of the stalkerlike behaviours of some of the men. Santa was perfectly mystical.
The main girls managed to rise beyond the tropes of “The Meek escapist” and “The Jaded one who really wants to believe”.
Score: 0.5
Dialogue
The wry humour and lampshading made this movie. The dialogue pulls together the ridiculous concept and elevates it beyond just cheese.
Score: 1
Visuals and Music
The cinematography wasn’t amazing, but the set design was amazing. They amped up the “fake christmas town obviously filmed in summer” to a new level of absurd. Using cotton balls as snow and plenty of impractical clothing. The outfits were also really pretty; loved the sparkly sweaters.
The music was okay for what it was.
Score: 0.5
Fun
I laughed and smiled the entire movie. It was light and entertaining. A perfect Christmas romance that managed to be nicely self-aware.
Score: 1
Overall
If you enjoy Christmas romance movies this is probably for you. I loved seeing the tropes and stories through the lense of pseudo-real people. The wry dialogue and hammyness were all perfectly well done.
Hello Readers and those that like to vote on stuff,
This is the 8th year that I write a serial story. I’m very proud of how they’ve all turned out and despite the mad dash to finish them, I really enjoy writing them. It’s nice to start and finish something in a year.
For those who don’t know, when I write these stories I write them by the seat of my pants at the last possible moment. I write a 1000 word chapter every month and at the end of the year you somehow have a wonderful story full of twists and turns that I really didn’t plan ahead for.
Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano
Crochet
The project she is working on (currently she is making herself a poncho)
Basic Information
We talk about the days of the week and play games with the cutouts of the names. We do the same thing with the names of the months of the year. You can find the print-outs here.
Printing words
Download materials
Counting objects/math-type activities
Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type –in download materials
Count and sort presents
Count and group Xmas tags
Storytime
Activity
Make Xmas gifts (2 days)
Make Xmas tags from old Xmas cards (cutting and printing)
Virtual school was much better this week (seems to be on an alternating schedule – one week good, one week bad). Dragon was disappointed to not be called on to name the days of the week, but when I pointed out that they already knew that she knew them, she was happier. She got to sing the Bonjour song, and then she was asked to sing the Automne song, which she hadn’t been asked before. She really didn’t want to do it, but unmuted her microphone and whispered along with Mme Houria. I was very proud of her for trying something new.
They reviewed the letter L, and Dragon volunteered the word “livre”. Not surprised. She loves her books. Then she wrote it down, with me only helping to sound out the word, not specifically telling her the letters.
During recess and lunch, we built a gingerbread house, and I took a picture to upload it to the Classroom so she could present it after lunch. Mme Samaké was thinking on the same wavelength as I was, because she had the pictures uploaded before I or Dragon even had to say a word! They had Dragon describe the picture (a maison gingerbread!) and then I asked her to mention what she did with the lights (I made the lights a suite!) The teachers thought she was saying sweet, but were very impressed when they realized she was saying suite (pattern). They had her list the suite in the lights and in the roof. Then they asked other kids the same thing. Then they asked Dragon about the formes (shapes) that she could see. (I hadn’t really covered that with her…something I remedied on Wednesday!) But she surprised me – when prompted if she could see any triangles, she said an arbre de noel! I was very impressed with her.
She danced with Yoshi during the physical exercise portion of virtual school during the Mario song. It makes me laugh.
We had parent-teacher interviews this week, and while Dragon is doing well, her vocabulary needs strengthening. To help with this, the teachers suggested that she watch a show in French, so we’re going to start watching one episode of Vampirina a day. We started this on Friday. She says she didn’t understand any of it, but at the very least she’s being exposed to more French?
No martial arts again this week (seems to be a trend, but Éric has been busy with coffee roasting), but she did ballet 2-3 times this week.
Music
Her letters are doing well, but she needs to work on the counting of full, half, and quarter notes and rests, so my mom is going to work on that when she visits during the week. Eighth notes/rests are great. She did all three pieces she knows and did well. She’s getting better at recognizing the notes on the staff and played the long piece with reading the staff.
We listened to French Christmas music this week. (obviously)
Crochet
We did a little bit of crochet this week, after over a month of no crocheting. It went as well as can be expected lol.
Basic Information
Working on the days of the week verbally is going well. She remembers without prompting, and can tell me the day before and the day after any given day. The months of the year is also going excellently. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month.
The saisons de l’année are going well. She’s got automne, hiver, and été, but still has trouble remembering printemps. (no change from last week)
Printing words
Her tracing is going very well, but her small letters are iffy. This is a work in progress.
I asked her to practice her ‘g’, pretty please with sugar and a cherry on top. She took me literally lol
Counting objects/math-type activities
She seems to be struggling with printing her numbers, which I find odd.
Her verbal counting in French is going well. She’s fairly consistent up to 14, then needs help with 15-16-17, can get 18 and 19, but needs helps with 20. I’m happy with her progress.
Storytime
We read stories from the teacher’s outline that was sent to us on Monday. She enjoyed that, and we will continue to do it next week.
Activity
Make paper snowflakes – She really enjoyed this. I needed to help her cut through the thickness of the folded paper (we just used regular printer paper), but she told me where to cut and how long a cut to make, and she cut the edges. She also did the folding.
Experiment with states of matter: solid/liquid/gas (make an ice cube) – We decided to freeze water into an ice cube, and then melt it back into water to show a physical change. She saw the liquid to gas change happen when we boiled water for the following activity.
liquid
solid
cold!
liquid again!
Make rock candy – we were so very looking forward to this. However, the receipe I had didn’t say when to stop adding sugar, and we were able to add an extra cup and 3/4 more than we should have been able to. So we ended up with solid sugar in our glasses!
Chapter 11: Mama certainly didn’t say there would be days like this.
I heard Frank’s voice and I thought I was dying or hallucinating. It had been a really long day and that day had started with me recovering from being a human lightning rod and gone downhill quick.
That’s kind of a good description of my life for the past year and a half. That’s saying something, considering it started by being abducted by aliens who played with my DNA and turned me into a superhero.
My vision was blurry, but I could see the Toronto skyline plummeting towards me… or was it the other way around?
“Frank, you’re dead,” I managed to mumble.
“No, I’m not, but you will be soon if you don’t snap out of it.”
All I was able to do was give a weak, “Okay.”
Somehow despite the pain, fatigue, and exhaustion, I managed to use what little energy I had to slow myself down at the last second. I landed comfortably in a dumpster and fell asleep.
If you’ve never slept in a dumpster, I don’t recommend it. It’s stinky and filled with both sharp edges and gooey bits. For me, the awkward part was that I wasn’t alone. I woke up snuggling a raccoon who, thankfully, didn’t mind the attention.
My mouth tasted funny, I ached, and worst of all, I was naked. I climbed out despite my muscles’, and bin-mate’s, protests. It was early morning and I had no idea how long it had been since the storm. I looked around and saw I was near the comic book shop. I ran through some back alleys, but this early no one saw me.
The back door was locked, but I forced it open. I felt bad, but could pay for it later.
My first week on the job I had a disagreement with the iced coffee machine. I wanted to stay clean and give a customer their order, it wanted to splurt iced coffee everywhere and give me a bath. Between that and the busses in slush season, I had learned to keep a spare set of clothing in my locker. The good thing about where I worked was that the uniform was a geeky t-shirt with clean pants. I would have taken anything at this point.
I snuck into the break room, grabbed my bag of clothes and locked myself in the washroom. No one saw me since they were getting ready for the early morning coffee rush.
Halfway through a sink bath I remembered what I’d done in the fake hospital and put my clothes as far away as the washroom allowed. I increased my inner temperature and watched as all the literal garbage turned to ash on me and fell to the floor. I felt cleaner but the floor was now covered in ash and had two footprints burned into a tile. I wiped the rest of the ash off me and washed with soap any smelly areas.
I was now just missing my cell, ID, and shoes. I went to my boss and told him, “Hi Jon. I’m in some trouble and I lost my phone and don’t have any cash. Can you lend me some money?”
His red eyebrows raised and he looked around dramatically before he took me into the back office. “Sam, you shouldn’t be here. Everyone is looking for you. You need to lay low.” He then gave me a suitcase. It was my GTFO (Get the F out) suitcase. I looked at him with confusion and he replied, “Did you think you’d fooled a comic book store owner? I’ve known for months. Mel dropped off your suitcase just after the storm. She looked terrible; the storm killed over a thousand people and caused billions in damage. She said she was going to take responsibility for it and then this morning the Thorns were taken by RCMP.”
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” I asked.
He stroked his red beard and nodded sagely before saying, “I listen, I watch, and I make friends with people much smarter than me. Trust me when I say they’ve all been taken and I know where.” He gave me an envelope and finished by saying, “You’d better go out the back. Don’t worry about the door.”
I left the same way I went in, only this time there was a shadowy figure watching me. I walked a few blocks and through the back alleys and busy streets, but I couldn’t lose them.
Finally I turned and said, “Who the hell are you and what do you want?”
Frank, looking older in the way a soldier looks older coming back from war, the way the rest of the group looked older, walked forward with a fast food bag and tray. “I got you a coffee and a breakfast sandwich. Can we talk?”
“Hash brown?”
“Four, and a donut.”
I took the bag and leaned against the brick wall next to me. I inhaled the first two hash browns. Have I mentioned that our metabolisms had increased? Frank chuckled in a way that made me want to run over and hug him.
“You were dead.”
“Mostly dead. They were able to restart my heart and bring me back.”
I sighed, “Who are they?”
“Shady government organization, calls itself CPL, Canadian Protection League. They pretend to be RCMP. They trained me to use my powers and used me to run operations all over the world. When I figured out they weren’t cool, I escaped.”
I threw myself at him and hugged him. We’d never been huggy before, but that was because I didn’t want to give away how much I liked him. “I’m sorry we left you. I had no idea you were still alive.”
“If you hadn’t I wouldn’t be. I’m not sure I deserve that apology after everything I’ve put you through. You know I’m…”
I stepped back and punched him harder than I should have. “You’re an idiot. What the hell was that all about?”
“I was sure they were watching me and this was the easiest way for me to see you…” He trailed off and gave me puppy dog eyes.
“That’s messed up. You killed people.”
“The moment that happened I stopped. It went too far.”
I sighed and finished my meal. I was still hungry. Mel would say that I needed to recharge. “I have to save them. They don’t deserve to be locked up.”
“I know. That’s why I’m here. I want to help.”
What could I say. My dead crush was my enemy but not really and now wanted to help. His powers would make the difference between succeeding and dying trying, I couldn’t say no. Hopefully he wasn’t planning on double crossing me. I did have another issue, “What about drone-guy?”
“I figured out who he is. His name is Bruce Gordon and he’s the one who trained me. It was all a ploy by CPL to have us expose ourselves.”
My day started naked cuddling a raccoon in a dumpster and now I was going to team up with a supervillain to save my friends from an evil government organization. I’m not sure this was an improvement in anything but smell.
December 4 (December 13 for local pickup/delivery in Ottawa)
Sales
Free local delivery on purchases of $20 or more, and use code HOLIDAYLIST for 15% off until December 13
Gilove2dance Designs
Buttons, prints, keychains, stickers from various fandoms including Doctor Who, Voltron, Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and more!
Free Shipping in Canada over $75 with code CANFREESHIP
Mirror World Publishing
An Independent Canadian Press of Escapism Fiction for all ages! We publish paperbacks and ebooks in science fiction, fantasy, romance, and adventure as well as children’s books and some art books.
Or for Ebooks, Use code: BOGO at check out to Buy one, Get one
Pastel Dreams Nikki
Selling creepy cute, pastel goth, and fairy kei products such as mask bundles, scrunchies, hair bows, dice bags, and much more! New products are created every month 🙂
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HOLIDAY15 for 15% off between November 1st and December 10th
Sofi’s Silly Slime
Sofi’s Silly Slime is where I create and make handmade custom and designer slimes, make DIY Slime kits, prepare party favours, loot bags and sell other sensory items like squishies. Slime is beneficial for creativity, focus, fine motor skill development,
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Stitchnanigans
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Tubby Tabby Soaps is a (queer) family-owned, small-batch, handmade soap company based out of Ottawa. Sometimes geeky and sometimes classic, we make soaps and solid shampoo bars that always keep the earth in mind.
ON/QC: December 11, 2020. Rest of Canada: December 4, 2020. USA: November 27, 2020
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twoemu creations
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Today we’re talking about the 2001 film Ocean’s Eleven.
Story
This movie was fascinating. The heist was extremely well done (cinematographically) and the characters, although a lot of them, felt very distinct. The love story felt trite and forced and there were a few borderline racist casting choices.
The heist is great if you don’t think about the details and how much could have gone wrong. And should have gone wrong.
Score: 0.5
Characters
When I watch a reality show it takes me more than half it’s run before I start telling the people apart. That didn’t happen here and I’m going to credit that each character is distinct and could in theory lead their own movie.
That being said, the movie was ridiculously male heavy, where the only women were strippers or love interests needing to be saved from themselves.
Score: 0.5
Dialogue
The banter and friendship of the main two characters is fantastic. The overall back and forth between characters and even with the “villain” is pretty good too. The nature of the movie means that you never get too long dialogue pieces which works for this movie, but makes it feel like we’re constantly missing something.
Score: 0.5
Visuals and Music
This movie was washed out, with a weird reddish-orange filter. It’s shot well to keep the plot’s secrets and surprises, but it’s not a pretty movie.
The music is okay but there are some weird choices and I’m sad they didn’t use the a modern version of the original’s theme in the credits.
Score: 0.5
Fun
I had a lot of fun laughing at how old the tech looks in this movie. It’s clearly trying really hard to look like all the security is cutting edge tech. It’s certainly dated now.
It’s still a lot of fun to watch the whole thing unfold and see all the moving pieces in the plot.
Score: 0.5
Overall
There’s something particularly satisfying about watching a heist go off so well. I also appreciate that they didn’t use the original’s depressing ending. But for me, there’s too many characters, the love story is terrible, and I have trouble not nit-picking the details of the plan.
