A Very Murray Christmas

It always has been a respectable digital platform for films but this year Netflix went up another level. With them putting out respectable TV shows on their platform like Daredevil or good comedy specials from people like Chris Tucker or Aziz Ansari, they are an entertainment platform here to stay. Even more so, it's impressive how they stuck a big named actor like Adam Sandler to sign a four film deal with them. Let's also not forgot the film A Very Murray Christmas Netflix made with Bill Murray that came out earlier in the month to celebrate Christmas.

Due to a massive snowstorm during Christmas time in New York City, Bill Murray worries that nobody will shows up to his TV show. Even with everything going on outside, guests and celebrities still find time to join Bill Murray to celebrate Christmas and to find a real meaning to the holiday.    

With really no plot here and only running fifth-six minutes long, don't expect a lot and this drags a lot also. It's a holiday special that depends on how much you like Bill Murray. He is much the same in A Very Murray Christmas as he is throughout the year. He is loud, obnoxious, and of course drinking is a must. His cast includes people like Chris Rock, Amy Poehler, George Clooney and others. Expect a lot of fun singing even by Murray himself and the best singing comes from really a surprising guest.

With the type of talent here and with the excellent director in Sofia Coppola, I would rather have wanted this to be a full-length film with actual real characters. In a way though, that is asking a lot. A Very Murray Christmas is at least a respectable holiday special even if it's a bit of a disappointment. It is a special that likely is just going to be forgotten in Murray filmography years down the road.

3/5

The Ridiculous 6

Without a doubt, Adam Sandler's career is among the most interesting of any actors in the business. By popular choice, it's said by some that his earlier films like Billy Madison or Happy Gilmore was his prime. For me, Adam Sandler's odder and less talked about films like The Wedding Singer, The Cobbler and even the below average Men, Woman and Children are to my eye his more interesting works. When you have the awful comedies recently like the Grown Up's series or That's My Boy, it's fairly obvious that Sandler is now on a downward spiral of bad films that doesn't seem to stop. Even if only a Netflix film, the part-comedy/part-western The Ridiculous 6 is a dreadful film.

Indian Tommy "White Night" Stockburn (Adam Sandler) never knew his real family until con-man named Frank Stockburn (Nick Nolte) shows up at his Indian Camp claiming to be his real father. After Frank Stockburn is kidnapped by Cicero (Danny Trejo), White Knight goes on the road to rescue his father. Along the way, White Night meets his five biological brothers who all also go on the rescue trip. The typical Western story involves money and some type of journey and of course all in the middle of a desert.    

The Ridiculous 6 no doubt counts as another bad Adam Sandler film but he's hardly the only issue here.

You have an odd casting for the "Ridiculous 6" bunch of brothers. Rob Schneider as Ramon is the Mexican brother who literally can't stop talking about his burro. Jorge Garcia is Herm who can only talk gibberish due to his mom drinking and this is quite a waste of Garcia's talent. Terry Crews is piano player Chico and he is a totally forgettable character. Taylor Lautner is the strange Little Pete who's just too odd and I don't know why we like a character like this. Luke Wilson is Danny who's character's only plot-line is that at he's fault for letting Abraham Lincoln get assassinated and it servers no point to the plot whatsoever. Even Sandler plays his role very dryly and he doesn't seem to care much about this. The acting really is not bad and it's a start at least but these characters seems so off together and it is very uneven.

Once you get past the main issues, the problems then go to the plot and the secondary characters. Again the talent is here in these secondary roles with actors like Danny Trejo, Steve Zahn, Will Forte, but the list goes on of wasted actors in more useless roles. This movie could go down in film history as a film with some of the most wasted talent. The plot itself is so basic for a Western and never goes anywhere new. The plot is also hamstrung sometimes and can't go anywhere because they try so hard to insert humor that it disrupts the plot. There is typical bathroom humor that you sometimes get in Sandler films but then you have some pretty dirty humor in this movie. When you combine bathroom humor and dirty jokes, who knows then who your main audience is? Kids wouldn't care about this and adults don't support Sandler like they once did.

                                         

Even if the Western genre isn't as popular as it once was, better Westerns can be found than The Ridiculous 6. It is a highly forgettable movie with not a laugh or chuckle to be found. Unlike most Sandler films, this had some potential but at this point in his career, he never puts himself in with good material. Let's also not forgot the four film deal Sandler has with Netflix. Three more films for our viewing pleasure are coming up!

1.5/5

Star Wars: A New Hope

You can write off the Star Wars series really easily. It's talked about nonstop through every decade. Your audience who are Star Wars "fan boys" are likely the most boisterous fans of any film series. Unlike many others, it's a series to whole variety of people and that's why it's made so much money through the years. It will always be one of the few series known to create trilogies so many years after the last trilogy in the series. Director, George Lucas has remastered the original films so much it has got to the point of being very tiresome. All of these things are a bit much but still I can't deny what great art Star Wars: A New Hope is. Of course, this is the Star Wars movie that started it all.

In the simplest way I can describe it, the plot of A New Hope consists of enemy and empire leader Darth Vader taking Princess Lea (Carrie Fisher) hostage. A hotshot named Han Solo (Harrison Ford), two droids named R2-D2 (who has major plans of the empire) and CP-3P0 and basically a young kid named Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) are the main keys to saving the galaxy.

At the first glance, the plot seems a lot to comprehend even if it is so original. It comes down to good characters that helps the plot work. Han Solo is exactly Harrison Ford's personality; so cocky and such a scrooge so it's hard not to like him. Luke Skywalker is really the ultimate underdog character and it's just make you wish Hamill had a career outside of this series because he brings so much to this character. Princess Lea is what a princess should be; she's sexy and much more likable then the other princess characters around. Darth Vader right from the start gives off of a vibe of an ionic villain and he's the character you want to see more of even if he is the villain. Really, even the droids have some character development where as CP-3P0 is nerdy and a clumsy fellow and R2-D2 is always willing to be in the big moments.  

This classic gets even better once you realize how well it's made. For a film made in 1977, it seems so new and effects that are acceptable even now. There is action that never lets up and the third act action really is something. From the desert area where Luke grew up to the many spaceship scenes, the settings are really chosen well which is really something for film from the 70's. Even more, it has a 70's-type charm that is not dated still. Basically in a nutshell, I am saying that this first installment of the Star Wars series is timeless.

Very few films come close to what this film is. This is the type of cinema that comes around in once a lifetime for a person. Even though I am a bigger fan of the Star Trek series (please don't shoot me fan boys!), I can still can get into Star Wars quite a bit. It might be cliche to say but Star Wars is surely something special.

5/5

Sisters

When watching Sisters, you really get a vibe that the leads Amy Poehler and Tina Fey have something really special going as a duo. They both have humor that is not normal for actresses. Both are willing to go the extra mile to be dirty. A duo that seems like they can work with a lot of material. Both have some really good moments in Sisters but even they can't make Sisters survive.


Katie Ellis (Fey) is a loudmouth lady who can't seem to get anything right for herself and who is struggling to raise her daughter Hayley (Madison Davenport). Her sister Maura Ellis (Poehler) is the likely the better sibling of the family who supports herself better then Katie but still, she is not married and her life doesn't seem to be going anywhere. After their childhood home is set to be put on the market, both sisters throw a party at their old house with a lot of nostalgia while family morals are learned and both find out how to better themselves. Sisters is part comedy with some drama elements thrown in.


Right from the get go, it's obvious Fey and Poehler are both meant to lead this film. They have the chemistry and are very likable but Sisters struggles to use them properly. Fey can be so unlikable at times but then she randomly goes through stretches where she is completely fine. There are some very good laughs here between them but they do run out and it seems the film wants way too much out of them. There are no supporting actors to help them. John Cena and John Leguizamo are here in supporting roles and are just so unfunny and neither produce anything to add to the story.

The plot has it's ideas but what comes together is an uneven mess. The party itself looks great and so much good effort was put into it. It's a party though that's very unrealistic at times and runs WAY too long. We never know where this element is meant to go and it doesn't seem to fully connect to the ideas of family morals and the theme of sisters. The script goes every which way and needs more focus.

Sisters is a lost cause ultimately. We just hope Poehler and Fey will be together more in the future and in something better. Even though it is more heavy, go seek out the somewhat similar like Miss You Already from earlier this year which is better. It should also be noted that with Sisters getting the same release date as Star Wars: Force Awakens, it's film fate is not looking very good whatsoever.    

2/5

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Before Planes, Trains and Automobiles, director John Hughes seemed to be on his way to only making high school films. Don't get me wrong, all his high school films had style and heart but something like Breakfast Club which dealt with a lot of strong issues basically showed Hughes could also move into another genre. In the best way possible, we didn't really expect the classic road trip film like Planes, Trains and Automobiles; the first different type of film he did as a director.

Two days before Thanksgiving, Neal Page (Steve Martin) and Del Griffith (John Candy) are traveling from New York to Chicago and are both trying to get home for the holiday. After their flight gets grounded by a Chicago snowstorm that strands Neal and Del in Wichita, Kansas, both go on a crazy journey to try to get home. It is a plot that would be so basic now but when this came out in 1987, it was kind of unique.

As he did with his high school films, Hughes makes Planes, Trains and Automobiles stands out mostly because of characters. Neal is a pretty high level executive who is a slimeball at times but still has a heart somewhere down inside of him. Del talks too much and makes his money by selling shower rings but again like Neal he knows what's for the best. Hughes makes two great characters that can coexist and they don't override each other. Even more so, these are great performances from Martin and Candy.

Nowadays, the road trip genre films struggle with plots that are just too far-fetched. Even though the plot of Planes, Trains and Automobiles might have too much of bad luck in it to be believable, you can still accept it more then most other films of this type. Planes gets grounded every year and people are stranded because we know how bad weather can be around the holidays. People do take buses like Neal and Del did for transportation at one point in the movie. John Hughes basically proves you don't have to be radical and overdo it in a road trip plot. 

John Hughes did so many great things in his career and Planes, Trains and Automobiles is the quintessential road trip film. Very few road films have come close to it. Even though I liked Uncle Buck which came a few years later, Planes, Trains and Automobiles was probably the last great ride for Hughes as a director.


4.5/5

The Night Before

We might have some classic Christmas films that are always watched this time of year but really was the last great Christmas film?

The Night Before might be marketed as a Christmas film but I will compare it more to Less Than Zero. Less Than Zero was a holiday themed film and a very heavy drama about drug addiction with Robert Downey and 80's star Andrew McCarthy. While on a more happy note, The Night Before follows around Ethan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Issac (Seth Rogan) and Chris (Anthony Mackie), who are three friends known to spend every Christmas Eve together since 2001 after to the death of Ethan's parents. This is likely the last Christmas Eve they will spend together due to changes in their lives. This Christmas Eve is quite wild among them with many lessons learned as they attend a party called the Nutcracker Ball.

The Night Before can be compared to Less Then Zero because of Issac and drug dealer Mr. Greene (Michael Shannon). Know to be a stoner himself, Seth Rogan plays the character so raw and it is very risky to have a main character be high on numerous drugs throughout most of the film like he is. Mr. Greene is more of spiritual stoner who can create some pretty fun Christmas miracles and at times pulls this film together at important moments. The appealing characters continue when you have likable actors Anthony Mackie and Joesph Gordan Levitt playing lead roles. The lead characters come together very well in this movie. The only downfall with the cast is Lizzy Caplan playing Diane; Ethan's love interest. This character is given nothing to do and especially when it's played Lizzy Caplan who has a lot of talent, it's even more disappointing.

With much more adult content here, The Night Before could be next compared to Adventures in Babysitting from 1987. Like Adventures in Babysitting, The Night Before is set in one night with a lot of running around New York City and crazy scenarios. Still, The Night Before has a much more far-fetched plot that you really just have to go with. I will say that it is quite original for Christmas themes and drug vibes to be thrown together into one plot like we have here.

The Night Before is a stoner film but it brings so much more to the table. Coming from director Jonathan Levine who already has a good resumes with films like Warm Bodies and 50/50, this just adds to it. It is a trippy film with a lot of positives.

4/5

My All American

Next to the zombie genre, sports dramas are usually pretty unoriginal. They have nowhere to grow and they at times follows the same formula piece by piece. With it being America game, you see so many of these football films and really only a handful work. My All American is more of the same.

Freddie Steinmark (Finn Wittrock) is a high school football star who eventually goes on to play college football at Texas University. This is a story of Freddie's efforts and setbacks while at Texas that changes his life forever.

As someone who walked into the theater knowing nothing about this story, the plot is based off a real story of Freddie Steinmark's life. Frankly, I don't think this movie will have an audience outside of Texas. Freddie is sure a likable character even if he is single-minded about football but more times then not I asked the question "why". Why should we care so much about this guy? Why so much into his life story? He sure has a lovely girlfriend in character Linda Wheeler (Sarah Bolger) but there's no room for her to grow. Even a big name like Aaron Eckhart playing Texas coach Darrell Royal doesn't work because there is nothing is to the character and nowhere to go with it. Don't get wrong, it's a nice story but a 30 for 30 feature makes more sense for the story.

My All American evens get more cliche really once you get into the depth of the football aspect. We see football scenes that have been done so many times before. So many of the game highlights just drag. The ending really wants to really grip you even though it doesn't come close and is so cheesy. If one of the purposes of the story was to get me interested in Texas Longhorns football, then it was very far off.

This movie is easily watchable but it feels so much like a one-time watch. Really what's the point of it if you already know the story the most dramatic happening in the plot is in the third act; a third act that drags badly. My All American is one of the many sports stories we can just skip.

2.5/5