The basic narrative is the same from the original book, cartoon, and the 2000 film. In the 2000 film, you are made to feel bad for the Grinch and his mean ways because he was bullied by Whoville Whos.
This takes a different approach and makes him sad and a little anxious.
This means less kid Grinch, more Cindy-Lou, and more Illumination style gags and gadgets. I liked the addition of Fred the reindeer.
Score: 1
Characters
Jim Carrey said that the Grinch didn’t hate Christmas, he hated people, and that really encapsulates the 2000 movie.
Meanwhile in this one, the Grinch doesn’t hate Christmas, he hates being alone. This makes him a lot more sympathetic and they can play up his being a softy instead of a jerk. It makes for a completely different feel for the movie.
The other characters are also likeable and surprisingly heartfelt.
Score: 1
Dialogue
The dialogue is adorable and has a few very quotable moments, but overall is just okay.
Score: 0.5
Visuals and Music
The movie was lovely and festive. The visuals were typical of the company and pretty good.
The music was good, but I’m not a fan of what they did to the You’re a Mean One, Mr Grinch.
Score: 0.5
Fun
The movie flows from one story element and gag to the next very well. It kept my interest and was fun throughout. Both kids were captivated and me and my wife laughed more than a few times.
Score: 1
Overall
It’s the Grinch. Exactly what it says on the tin, but it’s a much kinder, softer, and more fun Grinch. His heart is two sizes too small, but yours won’t be after watching.
The story is a copy paste from so many other Christmas movies. Instead of an ex or childhood friend, it’s a current best friend, but it’s pretty much the same. Even though the story is basic, the final touches are wonderfully queer.
Score: 0.5
Characters
The slightly neurotic big city agent, the small town ski instructor, the overbearing mother trying too hard, the sensitive nice guy, and the overdramatic aunt. All the stereotypes are there and they added a few extra with the meddling teens and the wise dad.
A lot of Christmas movies feel like they forget about the love part of romance and the love in the family around them. This one didn’t and love was very much central and believable.
Score: 1
Dialogue
Oscillating from corny to sweet, the dialogue was perfect for the type of movie. I’m also really impressed at how well the different couples communicated. It would be easy, and typical, to have non-communication caused hijinks. I’m glad they didn’t go that way.
Score: 1
Visuals and Music
The visuals were pretty but generic. The filming was effective and I really liked how they framed the lovey-dovey moments.
The music was pretty good. Lots of Christmas and a few original songs.
Score: 1
Fun
I took particular joy at the teenagers forcing a “There was only one bed” scenario. Obviously the teens are learning their set-up methods from fanfics. I also really liked seeing all the Canadian actors.
My five year old liked it; she really got into the set up. She kept asking why he was going on date with the other guy. My two year old got a little bored.
I appreciated that they avoided angst and awkwardness. I also liked that it was an unabashedly queer and happy story, which is a combination that we need more of.
Score: 1
Overall
This is the happy, queer, and Christmassy movie you’ve been looking for. It’s fun, cute, and honestly really refreshing.
Part Christmas movie, part enemies to lovers, and part rich author can’t write. (I’ve released 6 books in six years. When are the talk show interviews, international renown, and castle buying money supposed to kick in?)
The story is simple and not very original, but that’s part of it’s charm. If follows through with all its promises and it’s certainly a feel good movie.
Score: 0.5
Characters
It’s nice to see a love story without mocking about two 50+ characters / actors. They are roughly the same age (thank you for not making her 21) and other than her having an adult daughter, age isn’t mentioned.
The main cast play their roles perfectly. The reticent author, the grumpy Scot, and the new best friends are all fantastic. I like the relationships made throughout the movie. Also nice to see a guy friendship with no toxicity in it.
There were a few times it felt forced or scripted and it threw me out of the movie.
Score: 0.5
Dialogue
One of my English teachers told me that every type of love story is based off one of Shakespeare’s plays. This one has all the sass and quipping of Much Ado About Nothing. I love the interactions between characters and the quick, simple wordplay.
Score: 1
Visuals and Music
It’s hard to beat the setting of a Scottish castle. They filmed it perfectly to bring out the beauty of Scotland, and the set dressing for the Christmas scenes was over the top in the best way.
The music was lovely, especially the choice of songs.
Score: 1
Fun
Both kids sat for the whole thing, although I bribed them with chips (don’t judge me, please). It was exactly what I wanted to watch and exactly what it said on the tin. I laughed, cried, and smiled a lot.
Score: 1
Overall
With two veteran actors hamming it up, this movie couldn’t be anything but entertaining. If you like romances and Christmas movies, you’ll like this one. It’s a lot fun.
Boy have you grown in the past six months. From partial sentences to full conversations and descriptions. You are utterly adorable. You’re also a little terror at times, but that comes with big ideas, big emotions, and trying to deal with them.
Last Christmas, you didn’t seem to understand what was going on; this year you don’t know what is happening, but you know you should be excited about it. You asked for a cash register from Santa. I’m not sure if that’s because you wanted one or because Dragon had once mentioned she wanted one.
Right now, I take care of you while I work and I sometimes feel like I don’t give you enough attention, but that’s the way things have to be for now; soon things will change again. Your sister got her first vaccine and hopefully you’ll have yours early in the new year. That means that Dragon should be going to first grade in person. Then you’ll have Mum and I for most of the day.
When someone opens something you chant, “What is it, what is it, what is it?” in the cutest voice filled with excitement.
You’re starting to do imagination play where you make figures talk to each other and make up little stories.
You give the best snuggles.
You are terrible when you’re hungry or bored. You’ll scream and refuse to clean up. Just the other day, I was explaining other religious holidays to Dragon and you were bored so you just screamed. So frustrating.
There are 3 search and find books that you love and I swear they are the most soul sucking experiences. You’ve memorized all the locations of the stuff so you get bored part way, but insist on having me read them to you and then you just drift off. Sigh.
Overall, you are a wonderful little person and I’m proud to be your Papa. I hope you have fond memories of the holidays and I can’t wait to spend them with you for years to come.
Today we’re talking about the 2006 film The Holiday.
Story
The movie is easy to brush off as another rom-com holiday movie, but it has some surprising depth to it’s story and insights on love. The parallel structure both between the stories and between each pair of lovers is amazing.
Score: 1
Characters
Despite some exaggerated characteristics, the characters are well grounded and relatable. Each actor is at their best and it shows that the characters and roles were written for these specific actors. I still think it would be nice to see Jack Black in more romance roles.
Score: 1
Dialogue
There’s a wonderful balance between mid-aughts slang, romance tropes, and dialogue inspired by classic films. It gives the film a historic and timeless feel.
Score: 1
Visuals and Music
Between this viewing and the last we upgraded from a DVD to a Blu-ray and upgraded our TV to 4K. The jump in colour and depth was amazing. This movie looked foggy and grey before and now looks vibrant and sharp.
With the upgraded tech, I can see the impressive camera work and hear the music better. The music goes the extra mile to give each character a theme and even make it so that they are played at a different tempo and key depending on the situation. Example, when they’re having a hard time, things go minor. Another cool trick is the melding of the romantic lead’s themes when they’re being romantic.
Score: 1
Fun
I always expect to find this movie long or get annoyed with the plot, but I don’t. It’s a story that makes me sad and happy and leaves me feeling satisfied. It’s just enjoyable.
The kids, however, got bored. It’s a little more talky and emotional than they fully grasp right now.
Score: 1
Overall
This movie plays on the actors’ strengths and develops believable and lovable characters. It’s got just enough of a classic movie feel combined with a good romance to make it unique and fun to watch.
Definitely a feel-good movie with lots of depth.
Final Score: 5 Stars out of 5*
*A 5 star review doesn’t mean the movie was perfect nor that it is perfect for everyone but it is a movie I believe is as close to perfect as possible.
Borrowing partly from indie slice of life and partly from Christmas romances, this is an easy to watch mix of the two. There’s a mystery and a little angst, but overall wasn’t too bad. There are two parts that I didn’t like. I hate the trope of forcing a character to go on stage and then they rock it. If someone doesn’t want to do it, they shouldn’t be pressured. The second time it happened the character didn’t even do what they were supposed to.
I did however love the mirroring in the story of the train station and the main characters. That was cute and awesome.
Score: 0.5
Characters
Fran Drescher plays the perfect meddling mother. She’s never hurtful and she’s somehow always respectful. A nice change of pace for this character archetype. The rest of the cast is both pretty and easy to watch. The characters are believable and overall pretty authentic. I really liked the dynamic of the brothers and how they had to work at understanding each other.
I also like that the main couple being gay didn’t add to the drama but still influenced the character’s stories and conversations.
Score: 1
Dialogue
This movie had an interesting effect. I laughed and loved the clever dialogue… but I don’t remember any of it. It was fast and clever and never took itself seriously.
Score: 1
Visuals and Music
The movie was well shot, the clothes were fantastic, and locations were stunning. That being said, I wasn’t a fan of the “Northern Lights” scene that looked pretty fake.
The music was good if not memorable.
Score: 0.5
Fun
The movie was fun to watch. It kept my 18 month old completely enthralled. I’m thinking it was the banter, but it could have been my popcorn. The entire family liked it and I hope there will be more like it in the future.
Score: 1
Overall
This is an adorable Christmas love story that is made all the better by wonderful dialogue and authentic representation. I liked this one and look forward to buying a copy for annual watching.
It was a cute Christmas story but was derivative and predictable. Each beat (no pun intended) was expected and the middle bits dragged a little.
The emphasis on the necklace felt like an unused thread, and the “magic” inventor granddaughter proved she was smart and then the plot didn’t let her fix or make anything. It also contained one of my most hated tropes, where the adults don’t listen to the kids.
I’m trying really hard to ignore the moral, ethical, and humane questions of creating sentient toys and being able to mass produce a slave toy race that you can “reprogram” when they don’t behave.
Score: 0
Characters
The acting in the movie is superb. The characters are mostly pretty awesome. I didn’t really like the mail woman / love interest. Her constant mis-naming rubbed me the wrong way. Overall she came off as a male Christmas love interest, which I’m not a fan of.
The Jeronicus and his apprentice storyline is sad but extremely well acted. Journey was a joy and should have had a larger part in the plot.
Score: 0.5
Dialogue
The dialogue was appropriately steampunk meets modern day in a way that only a holiday fable could do. Some overly sappy and some kinda deep.
Score: 0.5
Visuals and Music
The sets, clothing, lighting, character design, and worldbuilding are fantastic. The cinematography was amazing and background information on posters, etc is meticulously done.
The music is fantastic, although I would have liked one last big number at the end.
I found the choreography a little repetitive, but not enough to dampen my awe at the music and visuals.
Score: 1
Fun
I was awed by the first few frames and hooked by the first song. It wasn’t until the midway point that I fell a little out of love but it passed fast enough. My family and children were riveted. The 17 month old would stop and watch, or dance, at every song and cooed at the adorable robot.
Score: 1
Overall
One of the most beautiful movies I’ve seen with some amazing songs and more than a little magic. It falls flat if you think about it too long, and all the beauty and wonderful acting doesn’t cover up the lack of original story.
The main plot of the movie is typical undercover reporter fall in love with subject. It makes reporters look bad and honestly the entire things is awkward.
The parts of the story that shine are when the characters are soul searching or making genuine connections. The sister character is fantastic and I could have watched the whole movie about her instead.
Score: 0
The Royal Wedding
The weak mystery is barely explored instead they spend most of it on wedding angst and pushing the main character around.
Again, like the first on the bright spot is the sister. She’s inspiring and adorable.
Score: 0
The Royal Baby
This was a well written closed-circle mystery that kept me guessing until the end. (Although I did have the culprit in my top 3.) The characters were less wet towel and they gelled with each other more. There was some awkward drama and they tried much too hard to pin the blame on Simon, again.
Score: 0.5
Characters
A Christmas Prince
The main character does a great job of being doe-eyed and fell for the prince the same time we all did, when we saw him with his sister. There’s some nice developement for the main three characters but overall it felt lack-luster.
Score: 0.5
The Royal Wedding
The king went from an unsure prince who doesn’t want to commit to being king to now being an unsure king who trusts his advisors way too much. The main character gets pushed around and is only really interesting when she pushes back or is helping the sister. There’s also a storyline that’s lifted directly from Princess Diaries. I’ll give the movie this, they did a great job with the redemption arc.
Score: 0.5
The Royal Baby
Overall this was a cute and joyful set of characters, something that should be standard for a Christmas movie. I liked the new additions.
Score: 1
Dialogue
A Christmas Prince
Mostly acceptable, if a little over the top. There are a few good speeches about identity, but nothing spectacular. The dad and the sister got all the great lines.
Score: 0.5
The Royal Wedding
Completely over the top; comparing the dialogue to a telenovela would be an insult to telenovelas.
However, as a giant nerd, I did appreciate the quotes and nods to other movies.
Score: 0.5
The Royal Baby
The writers built on the geeky quotes from the last one and made sure to include as much dorky future parents stuff as possible. The dialogue for them was believable and cute.
Score: 0.5
Visuals and Music
A Christmas Prince
The cinematography of this movie made me angry and gave me a headache. My family didn’t seem to notice, but the constant slow paning for no reason was extremely frustrating.
The locations were lovely and very thematic.
The music was lack-luster and was only elevated by the christmas music included. (You can’t go wrong with Tchaickovsky.)
Score: 0.5
The Royal Wedding
The cinematographer discovered quick cuts since the last one and they were almost as over used as the pans.
That being said, the scenery and clothing were good and the music classic.
Score: 0.5
The Royal Baby
Finally the useless pans are gone and the director and cinematographer started to frame the shots better. It’s not excellent, but good. The castle and clothing are as beautiful as ever.
The music didn’t stand out much; a few cute scenes but nothing spectacular.
Score: 0.5
Fun
A Christmas Prince
Breaking a ming vase or shooting an arrow through a window is a level of awkward I don’t like. There’s a lot of the movie that just isn’t fun to watch even if you know everything will end up fine.
Score: 0.5
The Royal Wedding
The obvious mystery was dragged out too long, and the angst was also dragged out too long. I spent a lot of the movie rolling my eyes and not yelling.
The sister and eventual warm ending was good though.
Score: 0.5
The Royal Baby
I have a soft spot for good mysteries and this was pretty close. It also isn’t angsty and kept my attention. A lot of fun.
Score: 1
Overall
A Christmas Prince
An excellent cast with a mediocre script and lots of cringe, the only thing that truly saves this is the interactions with the little sister.
Final Score: 2 stars out of 5
The Royal Wedding
An acceptable sequel to a lack-luster movie. Too little plot and too much angst. Again the sister saves the movie but she’s joined by a delightful redemption.
Final Score: 2 stars out of 5
The Royal Baby
Finally a balance between urgency and angst, this movie is the best of the three, with a fun mystery and lots of the best parts of the first two movies. I will probably skip the others in future years and just watch this one.
At times the movie is brilliant and others you wonder how that story point got past editing. It’s a bare bones slightly goofy plot. The world building is interesting and other than a few cringy moments it’s great.
I like the near complete reversal of traditional gender roles in holiday movies.
Score: 0.5
Characters
Nick is at times a clueless goofy idiot and at others a wise loving Santa… It’s a role that should be hacky and terrible but is made believable by Tom Cavanagh. (Seriously this role shouldn’t work, but he makes it not only likeable but one of my favourite versions of Santa.)
The rest of the cast is perfectly suited and well acted. Ashley Williams manages to play up the humour of her attraction to Nick without ever coming off as lewd.
Score: 1
Visuals and Music
It’s a made for tv movie from the mid 2000’s the visuals are okay. The cinematography is bare bones and the special effects are mostly limited to the mirror and a flying reindeer. The costumes are very well done, especially the Santa Suit at the end.
The music is fantastically well thought out. I’m not humming the themes but they were perfect for the characters and had a quirky cheerfulness that saved some scenes from being too serious or too scary.
Score: 0.5
Dialogue
The dialogue is clever and adorable. Also very dorky. I loved that we went from, “Nick… name… mine… my name is Nick.” at the begining of the movie to, “The first time I saw you I forgot to breathe.” near the end.
Score: 0.5
Fun
My wife and I have been watching the movie yearly for a decade and a half. It’s a Christmas staple that I enjoy. I’m not sure my kids liked it as much.
Score: 1
Overall
The movie is both adorable and aDORKable. The actors elevate what could have been a weird and uncomfortable movie into something lovely and fun.
By the time you’re reading this you’ll know the truth about Santa. At the very least, you’ll think you do.
The winter holidays, in my opinion, are not about Santa, presents, decorations, or sappy movies. To me, they are about being with family and actually spending time with them. Hopefully we’ll be doing that a little all year round, but in December we hopefully have more time.
When I grew up, it meant that my big brother was home and I didn’t have to go to school. I was bullied my entire grade school by students and one teacher, so it was nice to be with my Mom and brother and not need to worry about it. We played video games, watched movies, cooked, and baked. My Mom struggled with depression and the holidays were a time she always seemed to be happier. I hope she was.
The magic was family, a sort of warmth that the holidays had. The holidays never lost their magic for me when I learnt about Santa; they dimmed when my Mom died, but are still magical.
Santa Claus is a myth, a lot of myths mushed together. From all over the world and influenced by many cultures (and ad campaigns). Both Santa and Christmas are tapestries woven from hundreds of myths, traditions, holidays, and ideals. From Festival of Lights, to Saturnalia, to Yule, and of course Solstice.
The spirit of these festivals is to celebrate surviving the long winters (not as long as they used to be now). The magic of them in is in giving and helping those in our communities. From donating clothing or money to giving gifts or even just giving a genuine compliment; that’s how you make the magic happen. It’s not the date, the decorations, or anything like that.
This year, Dragon, you decided to make a gift for Santa, and that’s by far the sweetest thought. You are both loving and generous and I hope that grows in you no matter what happens. I hope when you discover that Santa isn’t a person, that you discover that he’s a parable. That he is the triumph of survival, the warmth of family, and spirit of giving.
I hope that we’ve managed to spark the joy and magic in you during the holidays.
