A new tradition
Director: ???
Writer(s): ???
Run Time: 6 Minutes 42 Seconds
Plot: Essentially the plot of every Christmas Carol movie, except this is a silent movie from 1901.
I'm hoping to start a tradition, in which every year on Christmas Day I post a review of a Christmas Carol film, in chronological order. I don't know why but I just think it would be nice to see every version of the classic film, from 1901 to now. There have been so many versions of the story, each trying its best to be the definitive classic, word for word, scene for scene from the book, each however, adding something new and beautiful to the story without compromising the whole story.
This short film is a lot different. For example, it was made in 1901 and is the earliest known version of A Christmas Carol. It's silent and therefore unable to be word for word but still has the overall message of peace and good will to all. So let's get into it.
The film starts with Scrooge and Cratchit working late Christmas Eve, Cratchit asks Scrooge if he can have Christmas Day off to spend time with his family and Scrooge allows him, although he doesn't seem all that happy about it. Cratchit is bowing and bobbing away in thanks and Scrooge is waving at him dismissively, like he doesn't care. Which...he most likely doesn't at this point in the story anyway. Scrooge then throws down his quill, paces for a moment and then gets an idea, puts his hat on, blows out his candle and leaves.
Next, there is a title card with the words Scene II Marleys Ghost Shows Scrooge visions of himself in Christmasses Past. There is something white in the background of the title card that I can't really make out. I'm not sure what it is but it looks like a body so in this story I guess it could really be anybody's.
In this scene, Scrooge walks up to his "door". I put door in quotation marks because it is quite clearly a set piece, and not even a convincing one. Given the time period though they didn't really have much to work with and it works just fine. Scrooge fumbles around in his coat for his keys, finds the right one and goes to unlock his door when, part of the door disappears and a head pops through, kind of like that old John Cena meme that everybody green screened into other memes. It looks like a woman but if you know the story, it's not a woman, it's Jacob Marley's ghost. I'm going to take a minute to talk about the editing and effects here because even though they're terrible, they're impressive.
This is a 1901 film, the careful and precise editing that would have gone into this one short scene would have been immense. It would have taken a lot of time, patience and skill and honestly, even though it looks cheap, it looks good. Obviously it's nothing on today's editing and effects and stuff but for it's time period, it's not half bad.
Back to the story. Marley's face seems to spook Scrooge enough that he does the classic "hold your arms out in front of you and scream because you're scared" move and then the face disappears. Scrooge slowly goes up to his door and touches the knocker, relieved that he was only hallucinating what he had just gone through. He still backs his way into his house in an overly dramatic way but wouldn't you?
Scrooge then walks into a room that looks like a living room and seems afraid of the door separator. I don't know why, I don't even know if it is a door separator. Either way, Scrooge manages to get his jacket off and put it on the chair behind him. He takes his hat off too, puts that on a table or shelf, whichever it is and turns around to once again get scared by something, only to then continue with his routine. It looks like he's being pestered by a ghost as he picks up his dressing gown but it also kind of looks like he's just jumping at everything too. Both would be understandable, I'd be jumpy as hell if I saw my dead friends face on my door.
He finally gets his gown and night cap on, goes to his window, gets scared at absolutely nothing (unless it was snowing, that's a whole other story) and closes his curtains. On his way to his table, he seems to hear a noise, he looks at where it came from and thinks "ah fuck it" and sits at his table anyway. He eats a couple of spoonfuls of whatever it is in the bowl that was already on the table, stretches and yawns, puts his elbow on the table, his head in his hand and goes to sleep. This is Ebeneezer Scrooge right? Not a millennial teenager?
Marley comes out of the curtain with a white sheet draped over him to represent he's a ghost, 'cause how else are you gonna do that in this time period? He then points at him, Scrooge waves his arms back and Marley retreats into the table to show Scrooge some of his childhood Christmasses.
The first is, I think, Scrooge and his mother. They seem to be preparing the table for dinner. While this scene is layered over Scrooge and Marley, you can see Scrooges reaction to seeing this. He grabs his chest, and looks away, he then looks back and points at the scene before him in disbelief. As young Scrooge and the woman walk away, present day Scrooge can be seen holding his head in his hand in sadness.
The next scene shown is Scrooge meeting Belle, talking with her, falling in love with her and her leaving him. Not much is done to show why she leaves but this is a 6 minute film from the 1900's so you take what you can. While this is playing, Scrooge is absolutely hamming it up with his performance, it's beautiful to watch. He's screaming with his arms wide open and not looking at the scene playing out in front of him but he can't help but look at it. It's great. He even collapses to his knees facing away from the scene, that's how emotional he gets. As he does this, Marley's ghost walks over to the curtains. No attempt made at comforting his old friend, just a wave and a fade away, leaving Scrooge to throw open his curtain in search of his ghost pal.
Then, there is another title card. Scene III Visions of Christmas Present Bob Cratchitt and Fred drink "To Mister Scrooge!" In this scene, a family is fussing around a table with a sign hanging above them. On that sign is the iconic phrase "God bless us, every one". The sign looks like it came from a church which...honestly I don't know how to feel about that. If it is from a church then it shows the family as the religious type which is fine, but if that's the case, why is it in their house? Is it stolen? Was it gifted to them? I'm never even going to get an answer, why bother even asking?
A young woman enters from the left side of the screen and is immediately ambushed by everyone at the table for hugs, a fairly normal christmas tradition. Everyone then starts bussling around to either sit or get food on the table when Cratchit gets home. He is welcomed with love and someone popping out from under the table...another classic Christmas move? Bob then goes over to greet his young son, Tiny Tim, and picks him up looking like he's about to launch him across the room, (it's down to where I paused it not an actual point in the story.) Instead he carries him over to the head of the table, sits him down and goes to carve the food.
The ghost of Marley and Scrooge are faded into the corner of the screen while Scrooge continues his chest grabbing, although this time it's in disbelief. "Me? The toast of dinner? My goodness I just can't believe it." This sort of acting is my favourite. These days, it wouldn't fly, nobody would have it. At best you'd be called an amateur and at worst you'd be called a terrible actor adn to never grace the stage or screen again. But looking at it for the time period, it's not bad, even if it is a little hammy. Scrooge is just loving his moment, being the toast of the dinner...even though he isn't really there.
After Scrooge looking like he's thanked God for this, we're swept away into the next scene, at his nephew Fred's house, where there is another sign which says "A Merry Xmas" which...was Xmas a thing back then? Honestly I thought it was a recent thing in dealing with cultural sensitivity around Christmas and it's apparent prominence over other religious holidays that take place at the same time. Maybe there was a specific sensitivity at the time or maybe sign makers just got lazy, I don't know.
In Fred's house, they start their toast to Scrooge at the same time he and Marley's ghost pop onto the screen, almost as if it was meant to look like an accident, Fred and the others at the table do the world's fastest toast, Scrooge and Marley fade out and that's the scene. Apparently Fred didn't deserve as much screen time as Bob.
Next comes the best part of any version of A Christmas Carol adaptation, "Scene IV The Christmas That Might Be Marley's ghost shows Scrooge his own Grave and the death of 'Tiny Tim.'" Could have given us a spoiler warning pal, some of us haven't read the book. That weird white body thing is also floating around in the background of this title card again which is weird because it wasn't there for the last one. The scene itself opens up with a man walking across Scrooges grave, which is engraved with just his name. The man is then followed by Marley's ghost who is finding the need for that sheet in the cold wintery snowy graveyard. Scrooge walks onto the screen begging and praying and falling to his knees in anguish, he begins to cry and then the film ends.
This is the longest version I could find and apparently it must have been longer but for whatever reason, the rest is no longer available. It's quite a nice film and for the time period, it's really good. Even without speech you can follow the story which is fairly simple. Honestly, if you think you've seen all the incarnations of A Christmas Carol, you probably haven't because you probably didn't know this one existed. I'll leave a link so you can watch it and be amazed at the earliest known version of A Christmas Carol on film.
Scrooge (Or Marley's Ghost)
Anyway, that's it for today. Enjoy your day, peace and love to you all and may God bless us, every one.
This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about this film. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like this film then go and support its creators by buying the DVD or Bluray.
Monday 25 December 2017
Sunday 24 December 2017
Deck The Halls
Matthew Broderick sucks but this movie doesn't.
Director: John Whitesell
Writers: Chris Ord
Matt Corman
Don Rhymer
Run time: 1hr 30minutes
Plot: The Finch family get some new neighbours who Steve (Matthew Broderick) sees as a threat to his perfect Christmas plans, especially when Buddy (Danny DeVito) decides he wants to be recognised for something.
Did you ever watch the live action version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas? Of course you have, for some reason that one is a classic staple of everyone's Christmas movie list, that's beside the point. Do you remember the scene where Martha May Whovier (Christine Baranski) is absolutely just one-upping Betty Lou Who (Molly Shannon)'s Christmas lights? So did the writers of this film. They remembered how truly hilarious that scene was, wrote a script around the idea and thought that this hilarity should be fronted by Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito. Now I'm not a huge fan of Broderick, he's just boring to watch and hi voice does my head in, and I've got nothing against Danny DeVito, I'm just not a fan of his stuff, but this film actually isn't all that bad. If I'm flicking through the channels and I see it, I put it on. It's a fun little film, even if it is full of problems. What are the problems I don't hear you ask? I'm gonna tell you.
First problem, and it's a big one. There is only one person that cares about what's going on, and he's made out to be a complete dick, that guy, is Broderick. The film acts like he's being unreasonable about all these lights being shone at all hours but...he's not. He's an eye doctor, that shit's important, and if you blind your town's eye doctor 'cause you want to be seen from space, then who's the real loser here? Also, if you're constantly blasting out shit loads of light, you can damage people's sleep cycles, you can really mess with the birds and other night animals which is just fucking selfish, Personally, I don't care if you mess with other peoples sleep cycles (unless they're the few people I love in my life, obviously), but if you fuck up an animals sleep cycle, you're in the bad books kidda. I hate to say this, but I'm definitely on Brodericks side with this, don't be fucking obnoxious in the pursuit of someone elses dream.
Another problem, some of the humour just falls flat, it's either predictable or jokes don't land like, for example; the Finch's young son, Carter (Dylan Blue) is looking at an almost naked painting of Tia Hall (Kristin Chenoweth) from back when she was a model for live painting. Tia says something along the lines of "I was just so sick of dating boys" then waves her hand at Carter saying "no offence". I get that it's supposed to be a cute little joke but...it's not funny. There's another joke where the daughters from both families are doing a performance at the winter festival, a la Mean Girls, and Broderick and DeVito are just catcalling their daughters, shouting "Who's your daddy" at them. They turn around and of course the joke is the guys are their daddies. Hahahaha catcalling your daughter is hilarious. Comedy gold people, comedy gold.
Also, DeVito's character Buddy, what a stupid name by the way, is a complete dick. I really hate this kind of character in live action films, in animation it doesn't bother me as much because it's not as tied to reality, you don't see Mickey Mouse providing for a family and paying the mortgage do you? No, 'cause he's gotta teach those kids morals, so the follow your dream narrative is fine in a cartoon because it encourages kids to follow their passions and set kids up for the fall into the abyss that is adulthood. In a live action comedy, targeted mostly towards adults, this sort of behaviour doesn't fly. He decides that his family can survive off the attention the fairy lights are getting him, he gives up his job and does increasingly stupid things to spite his neighbour. It's a wonder his wife even went back to him after he pawned one of her most treasured posessions. If my boyfriend sold off one of my mum's rings, my dad's chain or hell, even got rid of little Ted, he'd be gone forever. Wouldn't have it, and Tia shouldn't have stuck around when he sold off her grandmothers vase. Maybe I'm just a bitch and won't take any shit from anyone but, that's just me, I couldn't forgive something like that, maybe she could with the spirit of Christmas in her heart and such.
Onto the good stuff now, the title is hilarious to me. Deck The Halls? Let me explain if you're not seeing what I think is so funny. There's the obvious meaning behind it, deck the halls, decorating the houses, the main characters are called the Halls, it's cute. What's cracking me up is the fact that "deck" is a word used for multiple things; wooden patio, a part of a boat, knocking someone out. Yeah, not in keeping with the Christmas spirit but in at least the North of England it means to knock someone out. So Deck the Hall's makes a pretty funny title considering all Steve wants to do is knock them out. I find it funny.
Another good thing is that it's not too full on with the message of Christmas which, y'know, it's not suble by any means, but it's nicely slid in there. It gets a little bit too tedious when Christmas films try to shove the message down your throat, when you can do that yourself at Christmas dinner. It's just a good thing.
The rest of...everything is pretty pedestrian, typical "neighbours at war" story but with a Christmas message. It's a good film though, I know I've not sung its praises or anything spectacular but that's because the film itself isn't anything spectacular. Should give it a watch though, it's on Netflix for the Christmas season which...is very short at this point, however you should still watch it, if you've not already.
Anyway, peace out, stay warm, stay hydrated, see you soon.
This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about this film. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like this film then go and support its creators by buying the DVD or Bluray.
Director: John Whitesell
Writers: Chris Ord
Matt Corman
Don Rhymer
Run time: 1hr 30minutes
Plot: The Finch family get some new neighbours who Steve (Matthew Broderick) sees as a threat to his perfect Christmas plans, especially when Buddy (Danny DeVito) decides he wants to be recognised for something.
Did you ever watch the live action version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas? Of course you have, for some reason that one is a classic staple of everyone's Christmas movie list, that's beside the point. Do you remember the scene where Martha May Whovier (Christine Baranski) is absolutely just one-upping Betty Lou Who (Molly Shannon)'s Christmas lights? So did the writers of this film. They remembered how truly hilarious that scene was, wrote a script around the idea and thought that this hilarity should be fronted by Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito. Now I'm not a huge fan of Broderick, he's just boring to watch and hi voice does my head in, and I've got nothing against Danny DeVito, I'm just not a fan of his stuff, but this film actually isn't all that bad. If I'm flicking through the channels and I see it, I put it on. It's a fun little film, even if it is full of problems. What are the problems I don't hear you ask? I'm gonna tell you.
First problem, and it's a big one. There is only one person that cares about what's going on, and he's made out to be a complete dick, that guy, is Broderick. The film acts like he's being unreasonable about all these lights being shone at all hours but...he's not. He's an eye doctor, that shit's important, and if you blind your town's eye doctor 'cause you want to be seen from space, then who's the real loser here? Also, if you're constantly blasting out shit loads of light, you can damage people's sleep cycles, you can really mess with the birds and other night animals which is just fucking selfish, Personally, I don't care if you mess with other peoples sleep cycles (unless they're the few people I love in my life, obviously), but if you fuck up an animals sleep cycle, you're in the bad books kidda. I hate to say this, but I'm definitely on Brodericks side with this, don't be fucking obnoxious in the pursuit of someone elses dream.
Another problem, some of the humour just falls flat, it's either predictable or jokes don't land like, for example; the Finch's young son, Carter (Dylan Blue) is looking at an almost naked painting of Tia Hall (Kristin Chenoweth) from back when she was a model for live painting. Tia says something along the lines of "I was just so sick of dating boys" then waves her hand at Carter saying "no offence". I get that it's supposed to be a cute little joke but...it's not funny. There's another joke where the daughters from both families are doing a performance at the winter festival, a la Mean Girls, and Broderick and DeVito are just catcalling their daughters, shouting "Who's your daddy" at them. They turn around and of course the joke is the guys are their daddies. Hahahaha catcalling your daughter is hilarious. Comedy gold people, comedy gold.
Also, DeVito's character Buddy, what a stupid name by the way, is a complete dick. I really hate this kind of character in live action films, in animation it doesn't bother me as much because it's not as tied to reality, you don't see Mickey Mouse providing for a family and paying the mortgage do you? No, 'cause he's gotta teach those kids morals, so the follow your dream narrative is fine in a cartoon because it encourages kids to follow their passions and set kids up for the fall into the abyss that is adulthood. In a live action comedy, targeted mostly towards adults, this sort of behaviour doesn't fly. He decides that his family can survive off the attention the fairy lights are getting him, he gives up his job and does increasingly stupid things to spite his neighbour. It's a wonder his wife even went back to him after he pawned one of her most treasured posessions. If my boyfriend sold off one of my mum's rings, my dad's chain or hell, even got rid of little Ted, he'd be gone forever. Wouldn't have it, and Tia shouldn't have stuck around when he sold off her grandmothers vase. Maybe I'm just a bitch and won't take any shit from anyone but, that's just me, I couldn't forgive something like that, maybe she could with the spirit of Christmas in her heart and such.
Onto the good stuff now, the title is hilarious to me. Deck The Halls? Let me explain if you're not seeing what I think is so funny. There's the obvious meaning behind it, deck the halls, decorating the houses, the main characters are called the Halls, it's cute. What's cracking me up is the fact that "deck" is a word used for multiple things; wooden patio, a part of a boat, knocking someone out. Yeah, not in keeping with the Christmas spirit but in at least the North of England it means to knock someone out. So Deck the Hall's makes a pretty funny title considering all Steve wants to do is knock them out. I find it funny.
Another good thing is that it's not too full on with the message of Christmas which, y'know, it's not suble by any means, but it's nicely slid in there. It gets a little bit too tedious when Christmas films try to shove the message down your throat, when you can do that yourself at Christmas dinner. It's just a good thing.
The rest of...everything is pretty pedestrian, typical "neighbours at war" story but with a Christmas message. It's a good film though, I know I've not sung its praises or anything spectacular but that's because the film itself isn't anything spectacular. Should give it a watch though, it's on Netflix for the Christmas season which...is very short at this point, however you should still watch it, if you've not already.
Anyway, peace out, stay warm, stay hydrated, see you soon.
This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about this film. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like this film then go and support its creators by buying the DVD or Bluray.
Friday 22 December 2017
Scrooged
A more cynical telling of A Christmas Carol
Director: Richard Donner
Writers: Mitch Glazer
Michael O'Donoghue
Runtime: 1hr 41 minutes
Plot: A TV Exec, who lives a parrallelI(ish) life to Ebenezer Scrooge, goes through a similar experience with the three ghosts.
I really like this movie. It's dark, it's funny, it's Bill Murray, it's a Dickens classic all dressed up for the modern world, it's just good. I don't know how else to praise it except for going into it so...here we go.
Let's get the bad out of the way first. There is a moment towards the end of the Ghost Of Christmas Present segment, where Frank (Murray) has come back after his experience with the Ghost of Christmas Past and is on his way down to see how the rehearsals are going for his show. This isn't just any rehearsal mind, it's the final dress rehearsal for a live TV performance. That's a stressful rehearsal, it's got to be perfect so that the people behind the scenes can feel comfortable that what they're putting out there is good. Now then, before Frank comes into the scene, we see how the rehearsal starts off. First with the words "Last dress rehearsal guys", then with the man playing Scrooge getting stuck on one of his lines and breaking character. BIG ol' no no. Don't do that in your last dress rehearsal. What happens after this? The cast is rewarded with an hours lunch. When this happened I just paused the film for a moment and thought "is this real life?" Is this really what writers think final dress rehearsals are? You fuck up a line and you get an hours break? No honey. In my experience with final dress rehearsals (I've not done any for TV but I've done for stage), you get your lunch when the final rehearsal is done. You mess up a line, you carry the hell on, you don't get lunch 'til your final run through is done. I don't know if they did things like this in the 80's but...I don't know, it just sounds weird to be that laid back.
Looking back on my notes, that's the only negative thing I wrote down worth making a point of, the rest are just easy jokes and aren't even that bad.
With that said, onto the good stuff, which amazingly, also has very few notes.
First good thing, the transitions between Frank and the ghosts in wherever they are and then Frank back in the real world are really good. They flow really well with the final moment of the previous scene and the start of the current one which...transitions should do really, but here they're almost flawless. Almost, because nothing is perfect, even in 80's Christmas.
Another cool thing is that the names aren't the same as the classic characters and I can think of two immediate reasons why. One, because in this universe, the story of A Christmas Carol already exists, it'd be a little too obvious to have your main character, who loves an almsot parrallel life to Scrooge, be named something similar. It's just easier to go with the classic Frank than...Edward or something. The other reason, so that you can separate this version from A Christmas Carol. Don't get me wrong, this is still a variation of the classic story, however, it's a very cynical version of the story and, honestly, I don't know how dark the original material is but everyone sees this as a warm story in which a man sees the error of his ways and comes to love Christmas as a time for Joy. This film kind of goes the same route, just not as family friendly, even with Bill Murray leading it. There are sex jokes, there are jokes about the temper of the Ghost of Christmas Present, there's a man holding a gun on an entire room to help Frank reinforce the ideals of Christmas. It's great.
Finally, I want to talk about the ghosts. They're not the classic versions of themselves and that's good, helps the film get more of its own identity rather than someone just going "oh the past ghost is a calm and patient being" "oh the present ghost is someone who just adores christmas" "well well well would ya look at that, the Ghost of Christmas future is dressed like death". The ghosts in this film seem to reflect Frank's experiences with people in the time periods he sees them in.
The first ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Past (David Johansen) is a very rough, New York taxi driver, in a reflection of his childhood and his father. His father was a dick and if you disregard the jokes about a 4 year old being unable to get a job...
Franks mother: Earl, he's only 4 years old
Franks father: All day long, I listen to people give excuses why they can't work. "My back hurts" "my legs ache" "I'm only 4"
This guy's a real dick, just how many people would see a New York taxi driver, looking the way he does, that's what you assume of him.
The next ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Present is hilarious in her representation. She represents the idea of Christmas hitting you in the face with it's happiness and love and joy and I know that happiness and joy are basically the same thing but she's just double happy. I wrote down in my notes that she was the "Ghost of Christmas abuse" which...really, Christmas is pretty abusive. Don't get me wrong, I was listening to Jingle Bell Rock back in August, I love Christmas, but the second it turns 00:00 on November first, Christmas is everywhere it gets fucking exhausting. There's just so much of it everywhere and it can feel like if you try to escape it, you get a slap from all the decorations or marketing people.
Finally, there's the ghost of Christmas Future. There's a scene after Frank gets dropped by the Ghost of Christmas Present and he almost immediately sees the costume of the Ghost of Christmas Future for the live show and has a bit of a breakdown, more than he already is. Which then transitions into him going into the elevator and coming across the actual ghost, who is dressed in a similar way. The costuming looks cheap but I promise it isn't. It's actually pretty clever, he's literally just seen something that scared him and because the future is uncertain, and the Ghost of Christmas Future is generally ambiguous due to the fact of it being uncertain. This being took the form that scared him the most and decided to take that form and run with it, scare the hell out of him and do what needs to be done.
That last paragraph felt like it should have been in an English exam, wow. Anyway, I really like this film, it's funny enough and dark enough for me to want to watch it again, probably if nothing else is on or if I'm just lounging about and bored. That does happen a lot though. So I'll probably watch this a lot over the next week or so.
Anyway, that's it for today, should get on it, it's on Netflix for now, I guess it will probably stop being on there after the Christmas period so go on. Peace out, stay hydrated kids. Have fun, love you. Bye.
This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about this film. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like this film then go and support its creators by buying the DVD or Bluray.
Director: Richard Donner
Writers: Mitch Glazer
Michael O'Donoghue
Runtime: 1hr 41 minutes
Plot: A TV Exec, who lives a parrallelI(ish) life to Ebenezer Scrooge, goes through a similar experience with the three ghosts.
I really like this movie. It's dark, it's funny, it's Bill Murray, it's a Dickens classic all dressed up for the modern world, it's just good. I don't know how else to praise it except for going into it so...here we go.
Let's get the bad out of the way first. There is a moment towards the end of the Ghost Of Christmas Present segment, where Frank (Murray) has come back after his experience with the Ghost of Christmas Past and is on his way down to see how the rehearsals are going for his show. This isn't just any rehearsal mind, it's the final dress rehearsal for a live TV performance. That's a stressful rehearsal, it's got to be perfect so that the people behind the scenes can feel comfortable that what they're putting out there is good. Now then, before Frank comes into the scene, we see how the rehearsal starts off. First with the words "Last dress rehearsal guys", then with the man playing Scrooge getting stuck on one of his lines and breaking character. BIG ol' no no. Don't do that in your last dress rehearsal. What happens after this? The cast is rewarded with an hours lunch. When this happened I just paused the film for a moment and thought "is this real life?" Is this really what writers think final dress rehearsals are? You fuck up a line and you get an hours break? No honey. In my experience with final dress rehearsals (I've not done any for TV but I've done for stage), you get your lunch when the final rehearsal is done. You mess up a line, you carry the hell on, you don't get lunch 'til your final run through is done. I don't know if they did things like this in the 80's but...I don't know, it just sounds weird to be that laid back.
Looking back on my notes, that's the only negative thing I wrote down worth making a point of, the rest are just easy jokes and aren't even that bad.
With that said, onto the good stuff, which amazingly, also has very few notes.
First good thing, the transitions between Frank and the ghosts in wherever they are and then Frank back in the real world are really good. They flow really well with the final moment of the previous scene and the start of the current one which...transitions should do really, but here they're almost flawless. Almost, because nothing is perfect, even in 80's Christmas.
Another cool thing is that the names aren't the same as the classic characters and I can think of two immediate reasons why. One, because in this universe, the story of A Christmas Carol already exists, it'd be a little too obvious to have your main character, who loves an almsot parrallel life to Scrooge, be named something similar. It's just easier to go with the classic Frank than...Edward or something. The other reason, so that you can separate this version from A Christmas Carol. Don't get me wrong, this is still a variation of the classic story, however, it's a very cynical version of the story and, honestly, I don't know how dark the original material is but everyone sees this as a warm story in which a man sees the error of his ways and comes to love Christmas as a time for Joy. This film kind of goes the same route, just not as family friendly, even with Bill Murray leading it. There are sex jokes, there are jokes about the temper of the Ghost of Christmas Present, there's a man holding a gun on an entire room to help Frank reinforce the ideals of Christmas. It's great.
Finally, I want to talk about the ghosts. They're not the classic versions of themselves and that's good, helps the film get more of its own identity rather than someone just going "oh the past ghost is a calm and patient being" "oh the present ghost is someone who just adores christmas" "well well well would ya look at that, the Ghost of Christmas future is dressed like death". The ghosts in this film seem to reflect Frank's experiences with people in the time periods he sees them in.
The first ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Past (David Johansen) is a very rough, New York taxi driver, in a reflection of his childhood and his father. His father was a dick and if you disregard the jokes about a 4 year old being unable to get a job...
Franks mother: Earl, he's only 4 years old
Franks father: All day long, I listen to people give excuses why they can't work. "My back hurts" "my legs ache" "I'm only 4"
This guy's a real dick, just how many people would see a New York taxi driver, looking the way he does, that's what you assume of him.
The next ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Present is hilarious in her representation. She represents the idea of Christmas hitting you in the face with it's happiness and love and joy and I know that happiness and joy are basically the same thing but she's just double happy. I wrote down in my notes that she was the "Ghost of Christmas abuse" which...really, Christmas is pretty abusive. Don't get me wrong, I was listening to Jingle Bell Rock back in August, I love Christmas, but the second it turns 00:00 on November first, Christmas is everywhere it gets fucking exhausting. There's just so much of it everywhere and it can feel like if you try to escape it, you get a slap from all the decorations or marketing people.
Finally, there's the ghost of Christmas Future. There's a scene after Frank gets dropped by the Ghost of Christmas Present and he almost immediately sees the costume of the Ghost of Christmas Future for the live show and has a bit of a breakdown, more than he already is. Which then transitions into him going into the elevator and coming across the actual ghost, who is dressed in a similar way. The costuming looks cheap but I promise it isn't. It's actually pretty clever, he's literally just seen something that scared him and because the future is uncertain, and the Ghost of Christmas Future is generally ambiguous due to the fact of it being uncertain. This being took the form that scared him the most and decided to take that form and run with it, scare the hell out of him and do what needs to be done.
That last paragraph felt like it should have been in an English exam, wow. Anyway, I really like this film, it's funny enough and dark enough for me to want to watch it again, probably if nothing else is on or if I'm just lounging about and bored. That does happen a lot though. So I'll probably watch this a lot over the next week or so.
Anyway, that's it for today, should get on it, it's on Netflix for now, I guess it will probably stop being on there after the Christmas period so go on. Peace out, stay hydrated kids. Have fun, love you. Bye.
This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about this film. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like this film then go and support its creators by buying the DVD or Bluray.
Monday 18 December 2017
Christmas!!
It's Christmas time guys and that means Christmas films.
Over this month I've not had any way of being able to post anything, my laptop has been getting fixed and the computers at uni are terrible. The whole atmosphere in that library is terrible and I just can't focus there. I recently had an essay and my friend was an absolute star in letting me use her laptop to do it, so I'm using her laptop to the fullest potential and blasting out all my December work.
I really am sorry I've not been able to get anything out but hopefully I'll get my laptop back by January and I can carry on as normal.
So the films I've got notes for this month and will post over the coming couple of weeks are...
Deck The Halls
Scrooged
Four Christmasses
Scrooge (Or Marley's Ghost)
The Nightmare Before Christmas
I'll see you guys soon then, peace out, stay hydrated, and stay warm.
Over this month I've not had any way of being able to post anything, my laptop has been getting fixed and the computers at uni are terrible. The whole atmosphere in that library is terrible and I just can't focus there. I recently had an essay and my friend was an absolute star in letting me use her laptop to do it, so I'm using her laptop to the fullest potential and blasting out all my December work.
I really am sorry I've not been able to get anything out but hopefully I'll get my laptop back by January and I can carry on as normal.
So the films I've got notes for this month and will post over the coming couple of weeks are...
Deck The Halls
Scrooged
Four Christmasses
Scrooge (Or Marley's Ghost)
The Nightmare Before Christmas
I'll see you guys soon then, peace out, stay hydrated, and stay warm.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)