Category Archives: 7 Star Movies

Ransom (1996) Review

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This review is of the TV-14 edited version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

All right it’s thriller time! Whenever someone is taken for ransom you have to decide if you will pay it or not. This is a pretty big dilemma and everyone will have different answers here. I tend to agree with this film’s position on not paying the ransom. If you pay once then they will just do it again or in the worst case they don’t intend on returning the person anyway. You’re taking some considerable risks here. No matter what you pick, the important thing is to never look back.

The film starts with Tom and Kate enjoying a nice day in the park. They are both pretty busy with events and lose sight of the kid. Sean is kidnapped by a bunch of villains and then they send a ransom call. They want millions of dollars from Tom or the kid will die. Tom is a super mega millionaire so he’s fine with paying the money at first but then gets the idea that paying the money will effectively be a death sentence for Sean. So he decides not to pay but now everybody has turned against him and thinks that this is the wrong decision. Has he just made a grave error or is he doing the right thing?

As with all kidnapping films, there is more than a little suspense for disbelief here. In a place as super crowded as what we saw in the opening, I find it hard to believe that there would be no witnesses. I do think the parents should have been more careful and I feel the same way in real life when I see kids running around by themselves but I don’t see it being this smooth. Either way that’s how the film gets the story going so lets not get bogged down too much there.

Naturally from the intro you can tell that I agree with Tom here. You can’t pay the ransom and I thought that the movie did a good job of explaining the logic. Tom stays strong no matter how many critics he gets so that was impressive. The film even gives him a fight scene in this version which was cool. I would argue that he mishandled the timing though and got pretty lucky. He should have tackled the villain once he had spotted the guy and in the end he should have finished him because the guy nearly got another shot off. All in all, he did a lot more right than wrong though and was a good lead.

Unfortunately his wife Kate looks pretty bad the whole time. She crashes out on multiple occasions here as she just wants to pay the money. Then when she gets a suspicious letter she ends up going outside by herself and beaten up. She really needed to think things through more. Yes of course she is also doing everything she can for her son and I appreciate that but you can’t succeed on your own. Once Tom made his decision, she needed to stand by him instead of just making the situation worse. Throughout the film she is one of his biggest challenges because she actively eats away at his confidence.

Meanwhile for the villains, they’re all irredeemable and you don’t feel any pity for them. When you get into the business of kidnapping then you deserve everything that comes to you. Jimmy may have been the mastermind but they were all in on it so when they were getting shot you don’t really care about them. As for Jimmy, he was definitely holding his own for quite a while there and ultimately just got greedy. He did make for a fun contrast as we would see him panicking when Tom would get on TV and start with the threats. We got to see just how shaken up he was the whole time.

The police don’t look great here though. Jumping in unprepared ends up leading them to shooting the only witness. It was incredibly sloppy as they couldn’t have handled that worse. Meanwhile the lead officer leaking secrets to try and shake up the marriage was a low blow. He wants the characters to pay the ransom but taking it into his own hands like that was a bit much. Likewise we also see him talking on the phone about how he’s glad that he isn’t rich which feels incredibly inappropriate. Even aside from the fact that someone might hear him, it’s the worst possible time to say that. He really needs to work on his mindset.

Well nobody’s perfect but it does underscore that Tom is really on his own here. If he even thinks to rely on the police then he will be in trouble and naturally that is exactly what you don’t want to hear. It’s already a stressful situation and being on your own makes it even tougher. That’s why it was impressive that Tom stuck to his guns and never looked back. If he had been shaken up and changed courses then things would not have gone well at all.

Overall, Random is a pretty good movie. It should have you on the edge of your seat the whole time. The writing is pretty good and I really enjoy the premise. It makes for a fun game of cat and mouse. It also allows Tom to actually tough talk to the villains for once rather than the usual setup where the villain just smack talks and gloats for 2 hours. This time the hero gets to take the offensive which is really refreshing. It makes the film a little more fun without sacrificing the atmosphere. At the end of the day the story itself is simple enough but the film is able to craft a really interesting movie out of it by executing well on every aspect. The film has no real weaknesses to speak of here which is impressive and not so easily done. You can trip up in a lot of ways for a thriller like this. So I would definitely recommend checking the movie out.

Overall 7/10

Twisters Review

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It’s sure been a long time since the first Twister film. That one was a classic and people still know it very well to this day. The question is, can this one achieve the same living legacy? I doubt it, I think it’s a little harder to do that with how many films are out nowadays with so many options to watch them but I would say they did a good job with this one and I actually liked it more than the first Twister. This film can perhaps be a bit obvious with the twists at times but it doesn’t take away from the fun experience overall.

The movie starts off with Kate and her crew deciding to take down a tornado. She has an idea on how to shut them down from the inside but it doesn’t work out and most of them end up dying. This includes her boyfriend who she was really close with and will have a hard time continuing without. As a result, she left the business and is more of a tornado consultant now. One day she is tracked down by the last surviving member, Javi. He is bringing in a new team and they’re getting data on the tornadoes. Kate is skeptical about going back in but reluctantly agrees. Will they be able to make a difference this time?

It’s easy to see why Kate wouldn’t want to get back into the field. I sure wouldn’t want to get back out there after nearly dying and watching everyone else get blown away. It’s not the kind of work that you can do without being 100% committed either. For that reason she is blinded a bit in the beginning and doesn’t really ask too many questions about what they’re doing. Honestly she’s not the nosy type at all because I would have been googling things immediately. An old friend shows up with some kind of big project? Yeah sounds like a pyramid scheme if I’ve ever seen one.

We’re also introduced to the rival Tornado Wranglers group who were a lot of fun. I immediately liked them as soon as they showed up. These guys are loud and in charge as they take the risks and make a lot of money off of livestreaming. I think you’re supposed to find them off putting at first before the film goes into this but I just love confidence. So I was on board right from the jump and why wouldn’t I be? The main characters take everything so seriously while these guys are just having a great time. It’s hard to turn that down.

Tyler is the leader there and he gets a lot of screen time. He trades banter with Kate right away and the two of them go back and forth a whole lot. Naturally this is Hollywood so you’re expecting a romance and that is the weakest part of the film. It’s just too sudden and I don’t buy it. The film also seemed to be hinting at Javi being in love with Kate too but it doesn’t fully go with that storyline which was a good idea. Even if he did like her, not saying anything was the heroic response there.

What I like about Tyler is that he isn’t your generic kind of loudmouth. Instead he knows his stuff and is actually quite the genius. The film did good to avoid the obvious tropes there and his whole crew was solid. They weren’t as stuffy as Javi’s crew and there is something to be said about staying relaxed in tight situations. It’s not like Javi’s group was bad or anything like that but you can tell that it would be a much more stressful environment.

By the end of the film, things do start to get a little exaggerated as the story beats you over the head with who the bad guys are. I would have appreciated a little more nuance there but nonetheless the film has enough good plots to keep it going well. The pacing is smooth and the effects are really solid. It was definitely great seeing the tornadoes up close and we got some great disaster scenes. That tends to go without saying but it does take a lot of effort.

A film like this lives or dies on the characters though because you have to care about them beyond just following the disasters. The film succeeds on that as I liked Tyler and Kate. I never quite warmed up to Javi but you can’t win them all. The film’s technology approach was also good to show how much progress we have made in tornadoes over the years. It’s an area that I expect we will never fully master but every improvement certainly goes a long way.

This is a very uplifting kind of movie. The characters go through their hardships and everything but it’s all about overcoming them. In that way this feels like a very classic kind of film that’s not trying to be too fancy or get too ambitious. This helps the movie really feel like a true successor to the first Twister film. We don’t even have a true villain who’s trying to blow everyone up or anything like that and the film still feels like a good thriller all the way.

Overall, Twisters is a pretty fun film. It’s easy to tease the whole premise of there being two twisters this time around but it is a well crafted movie. It can be very predictable at times and I think it could treat the audience with a bit more respect in terms of being less obvious but at the end of the day it is a movie that makes for a good watch. It has a lot of replay value and you’re never bored at any point during the story. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes some quality excitement and there is definitely room for a sequel with how it ends.

Overall 7/10

Scarface Review

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It’s time to look at a film that’s all about gang violence. You’ve got a bunch of people all fighting to be number 1 but of course you’d expect a guy with the codename Scarface to quickly rise to the top. Most of the film is really about him climbing as he goes from being a nobody to one of the most feared names out there. He really gets everything that he wants but you can never keep that level of success for long and so things get dicey for him.

As the movie begins, we get to see that Scarface is good at his job right away. He does whatever the boss needs from him whether it be bouncing or shooting folks. We also see his weakness right away which is that he is very aggressive and wants to keep moving upwards. While the boss is happy to settle for the territory that he has now, Scarface wants everything. He just keeps on picking fights and shooting more people until he has more and more power. Eventually the cops will catch him right?

Well a big part of the film is about how the cops basically had their hands tied the whole time. They want to get Scarface and they know he’s guilty but there’s nothing that’ll stick. The witnesses quickly become blind and no there’s nobody to let them prosecute the guy. It makes sense because when the mafia had this much power, they could easily get some retribution on the witness. It’s one of the big problems with the justice system that you even see nowadays. Not in the national headlines or the big cases but on a local level people can be afraid to report a crime because that information isn’t always private. In other cases it may also be that it will become obvious who snitched when the cops showed up.

You do feel like there should be a way around that when you know the guy is guilty but that gets into a whole debate on admissible proof and everything. Generally I think all proof should be admissible but that’s another topic. All villains have a weakness and Scarface’s ends up being the ladies. He likes Poppy who was the girlfriend of his boss but Scarface eventually took over. He started disrespecting the guy publicly and moving up so she quickly went to him. You sort of wonder why he would want to be with her at all when she clearly didn’t like him at all until he got rich. Do you really want a fake girlfriend like that?

Well I guess he was desperate enough and in the end that didn’t help matters. It causes him to to have to show off and get even more status the whole time. Meanwhile his sister also wants to live a glamorous life and so the more that Scarface tries to shelter her, the more she acts out and gets even more provocative. Obviously Scarface was in the wrong here as well so he was really a full on villain everywhere. It’s one thing to want her to be careful and not mix in with the gangsters but it’s another to basically tell her to stay home all day and even get physical when she doesn’t listen.

It makes Scarface look terrible and it’s a hard plot to understand because of how extreme he was. Honestly it would have been a satisfying ending if she was the one to take him out but ultimately she falters. I guess the film didn’t want her to have to sink to that level but I thought that ending would have been rather poetic the whole time. It would have been pretty justified with everything that she had been through. Yeah, going with one of Scarface’s pals was a bad move but he was going to have that reaction with anybody.

With all these crooks running around, you’re definitely rooting for the cops to get their win later on. It takes a while for them to be able to do anything here but they were written really well. I particularly liked he detective who would walk in and call Scarface out. Even outnumbered the guy was as confident as could be and said he wasn’t afraid of Scarface. He also wasn’t taking any disrespect and really landed a solid punch on the guy at the barber shop.

It’s naturally going to be frustrating to not be able to take the villains down on sight so you definitely feel that the whole time. The movie conveys this well and with the quality writing the whole time, you are definitely engaged with what’s going on. The pacing is good and the film has a solid climax. There is definitely a good amount of action going on here and the whole thing has aged well.

At most I would have just liked to have seen the enemy gang a little more. They really don’t get to do much at all and get taken out with incredible ease. Showing them taking more of Scarface’s allies down would have been good to establish why the previous boss didn’t want to mess with them. Based on the events of the film, it seems like Scarface was correct in expanding the territory and picking this fight. The enemies were definitely not ready for them even if there was some collateral damage.

Overall, Scarface is a pretty interesting movie. While none of the main characters are likable since they’re all crooks, it does show you what a dangerous lifestyle it all is. When you live by the gun you are very likely to die by it as well. You also can’t go to the cops when you’re in trouble either so then you have to try and find some friends you can trust. And that list will be getting smaller and smaller as the days go on. It’s just not the kind of business where you can even afford to trust anybody after all. When you watch it, you’ll definitely appreciate how you don’t have to worry about the mafia as often anymore.

Overall 7/10

Trading Christmas Review

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It’s time for one of those films about house swapping and I’ve never been crazy about the idea. I just don’t trust people at all so I feel like the instant I do one of these, I would lose some things. Things would mysteriously disappear and I would never see them again. That’s a really scary prospect so I would just be too emotional to go along with it. For the people who Air B&B they’re probably thinking I’m crazy though. It is what it is.

The dual main characters are Emily and Charles here. For Emily, she was looking forward to spending Christmas with Heather but her ungrateful daughter has decided to go on a date with Jason instead and will be spending the holidays with him. Emily figures that she can fly over to surprise Heather and dashes over only to find out that Heather snuck away to another state without telling her. Not a very nice thing to do here and now what is Emily supposed to do with herself. She’s alone at Christmas?? The horror of it all. That’s when she bumps into Ray, a good friend of the guy she is borrowing the apartment from and a fast romance starts.

From the 3 plots this is probably the one where you are the most sympathetic to the lead. Emily is just trying to spend quality time with her daughter and the whole surprise visit seems like a fun idea. What are the odds Heather would just switch states right? It’s also rough to lose traditions so suddenly and without warning like this. It’s just tough and that’s why you can’t really buy into the romance here because it seems like Ray caught her at a very vulnerable time. Additionally the 180 to Emily suddenly not being interested in traditions and such was pretty rough. It was all so sudden and I guess in the end it’s like nobody wins.

Ray is nice enough but again the romance is all just so fast and contrived. He should have stayed in his lane and not made a pass at someone who is just renting the apartment for a few days. In theory once she left he would never see her again unless they got really serious about each other really quickly which doesn’t seem like such a good idea. You don’t really know the other person at that point.

Then we have the plot with Heather and Jason which is the weakest one. The whole time it seemed to be building up to a choice of regret where Jason just wasn’t a great guy and they were going to break up as she realized that traditions are good. He lets his friends crash in on their date and kept making the worst decisions possible. He wasn’t even interested in watching her old wonderful place movie. Well eventually they head back and it turns out that he’s a decent dude but the whole plot felt like a bit of a wash. It just didn’t have much of a purpose here. I’d say Heather had a purpose, but not so much Jason except to be a red herring here.

Finally we have the plot with Charles and Faith which was easily the most entertaining. So Charles is an author who writes a ton of books and he is trying to have a quiet place to focus. So that kind of works and he has a spot now except that Faith shows up because she was actually trying to surprise Emily which didn’t work out. The problem is that she terrifies Charles so he runs around crying the whole time about how she is distracting him and being a big baby about the whole thing.

There’s a lot of banter here throughout as a result and Faith really does good on her end like with keeping the neighbors out and even making food. I was on her side the whole time because Charles was often panicking about nothing and was also way too defensive about his books. The guy could stand to learn how to accept some constructive criticism. He eventually does but the plot takes a bit longer than it should have. Once again you have a hard time seeing just why the romance would start here. Maybe if Charles had been a bit nicer from the start there could have been a chance.

Of course then there would be less witty banter so I suppose I would miss that part. Charles just thinks too highly of himself and generalizes everyone which Faith calls him out on. At least now his next books will end up being better. The movie did a good job of balancing these 3 films the whole time. It felt like there was way more of a story here than I would have expected otherwise. The movie isn’t even that long and yet it paces everything well so it gets full kudos for that. You don’t feel like any plot got the short end of the stick.

Heather’s certainly has the least amount of screentime but that makes sense because it’s not like her house was one of the ones that was swapped. At most you could say that with more screentime they could have set things up a bit better to establish that she was trying to have it both ways a bit too much with ditching traditions while still following others and that would help her realize that she really wasn’t nice to her mother at all. A good redemption arc would be nice since she was so petty the whole time.

Overall, Trading Christmas definitely doesn’t change my mind on why I wouldn’t want to ever trade houses/apartments even just for a week or so. I would have real security issues but naturally it does make for a very good movie plot. This movie is charming and fun throughout the whole adventure with good writing and pacing the whole time. Often times you can expect maybe 2 main plots at most but 3 in this Christmas adventure was really taking things to the next level and I was really impressed to see it. The bar was set high here without a doubt. If you’re up for a fun Christmas title then you definitely won’t want to miss out on this.

Overall 7/10

A Season for Miracles Review

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It’s time for one of those Christmas stories that has a wholesome ending but things get rocky for the characters at first. It’s a pretty fun film and it held my attention the whole time. The romance angle may be a bit on the weak side but when you’ve got a quality story at the ready then you can often get past such things. This film also isn’t afraid to tap into the supernatural angle a bit.

The film starts off by showing us that Emilie’s sister has taken another massive L and is being arrested again for drug issues. Emilie prepares to take care of her two nephews as usual but child custody agents show up and demand the kids. They can’t confirm that they can keep the two together either so Emilie decides to flee with them. She shows up to a small town where she is mistaken as the daughter of a rich lady who owns a mansion. Emilie feels uneasy about continuing the deception but the nephews are tired of moving so she stays for a while. The police captain Nathan quickly falls in love with her but also suspects that she isn’t telling him something. What will win out, his mind…or his heart?

Now Emilie isn’t a career criminal like her sister but she definitely does tend to mess up a bit here which is how Nathan gets so suspicious in the first place. When they’re looking through the attic she quickly starts to panic and says she doesn’t want to look at anything. Then not letting her kids buy any food at the market or enrolling them into school. She should at least do these things as a good cover before moving out. If anything she would have probably raised no suspicions had she done this and everything would have been set. Instead, she set off the alarms here.

I’d also say she should have forced the issue and taken her kids out sooner. That would have made more sense because without some supernatural intervention she was doomed here. It wouldn’t be easy to always be living on the run but in theory she just needs to evade the cops one or two more times in different states and they would eventually give up. It would be very difficult to track her down in such a non digital age. The nephews would be upset at first but in a few years they would understand.

While Emilie does have a hard time staying undercover, she is a good character through and through. Part of why she has such a difficult time is because this stuff is not second nature to her. She’s not used to breaking the law or anything like that and is just going this far to protect her family. So I’ve definitely got no issues with her as a character and I also agree with her move of running away because the custody agents clearly didn’t have the kids’ best interests at heart. Yeah they’re just doing their jobs but that’s not really much of a consolation for the kids.

Meanwhile Nathan is a solid character. He had his suspicions and kept at it until he got his answer. He would have solved things much quicker if not for Emilie’s guardian angel watching out for her. You could argue that Nathan overreacted a bit once he finds out the truth and I would agree with that. It’s a rough deception but the circumstances are immediately understandable even if it took him a little while to get to that point. The romance feels a bit rushed and hard to buy as a result but compared to some of the other big Christmas romances it holds up well enough.

As for the guardian angel, she was a nice enough character. She was constantly helping out in small ways and flexing her powers like when she would appear and disappear just to mess with everyone. Without her Emilie would have been doomed so she deserves the MVP role. Perhaps she could have solved the situation a bit easier but I imagine she wanted to eventually get things out in the open so that the humans could solve things themselves. That does make a lot of sense.

The film also squeezes in a courtroom scene which was a really nice touch. I can’t say I was expecting that and while it may not have been particularly long, it got the situation across well. Mix that in with a solid climax and we’re all set. Not every character gets a happy ending as Emilie’s sister is still in jail but it does seem like she wasn’t about to turn over a new leaf. In this case she was too far gone with the drugs but maybe in a sequel she could make a comeback. I’ll at least give her credits for not betraying her kids or sister when the cops tried to interrogate her. I mean it wasn’t much of an interrogation but she confirmed that she wouldn’t play ball.

Overall, A Season for Miracles is a pretty fun film. It’s got a good story and the characters are fun. I would also say that the supporting cast was better than expected. I liked the neighbors and the lawyer in training also did a good job in helping her out. It was nice to see the whole community side with the heroine even after only knowing her for a little while. Shows what a tightknit community they had there and everybody was just generally pleasant. That’s one thing I always appreciate about these Christmas titles which is that the communities are really strong and wholesome. Helps maintain that really friendly atmosphere. Mix in the usual good writing and pacing and I definitely have no complaints with the film and would recommend checking it out. At most the kids might annoy you a bit but that’ll happen in any film where they are present.

Overall 7/10

Lucky Christmas Review

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Lucky Christmas is one of those really wholesome movies that is definitely fun to watch and has pretty good writing. The only weakness is the romance as a whole and at this point it’s probably safe to say that this isn’t super surprising. That’s just how it goes sometimes. I’d say the movie still succeeds despite this, the humor is on point and the plot is interesting. It’s also the kind of scenario you could picture happening in real life.

The movie starts with Holly buying her lottery ticket as always and at this point it’s really just a habit. She doesn’t actually think she’s going to win or anything like that. So she goes about her day and doesn’t properly lock up her ticket in a safe or anything like that. She just leaves it in her car. Meanwhile Mike and his irresponsible friend are hanging out and Mike gets super drunk so his friend drives him home. The friend isn’t the smartest guy in the batch so he ends up stealing a nearby car to drive Mike home and that happens to be Holly’s. So he finds the winning lottery ticket and figures he could be rich but of course the ticket is in Holly’s name. Is there a way to trick her into giving up some of the money? Meanwhile Mike wants to make things right and give her back the ticket but he isn’t sure how to do that without looking suspicious. In the meantime he may as well romance her up a bit.

Right away you can see how we’re rooting against Mike and his friend. Mike does take a whole lot of the blame here since he should have come clean right from the jump. There were many opportunities to give the ticket back if he was being serious about this like sneaking it into her house, leaving it in an envelope addressed to her, etc. He just made excuse after excuse and then it’s doubly bad since he is trying to have a relationship with her as well. That means the whole thing is deceitful from the jump and so the romance really shouldn’t hold. Surely being betrayed on such a personal level would completely doom any chances of being together right?

Well, in a fair and just world that would certainly be the case but unfortunately it’s just not so simple in this film. Holly ultimately doesn’t mind and after a fight they’re back together but it’s ultra cheesy so the romance plot is the part that you will have to endure if you are to still enjoy the movie. It just doesn’t make any sense at all and neither does Mike’s still being friends with the guy. You can have an acquaintance who is annoying like if you work with them or something but a close friend who is this bad just shouldn’t be in your circles. It makes you look bad as well.

Just look at the first scene of the film where Mike’s friend causes them to burn down a house. Mike is also to blame since he wasn’t exactly stopping things and when the boss gets mad, Mike has the audacity to actually be defensive about the whole situation. That was another moment where I couldn’t be on his side. Not only could people have been seriously hurt but the whole thing was meaningless. There was no point to his actions and so he comes off as being completely immature which I would say is fully accurate here. He is not a mature person in the slightest and should have gotten told off along with his friend.

As for Holly, aside from being way too forgiving she is a decent character. I understand not paying attention to every lottery ticket after a while as you probably just start to assume that you will lose by default. I’d make the case that then you shouldn’t be wasting the money to buy tickets though. Even though most are only a dollar or so, it really adds up over time. Imagine putting that towards stocks or something instead. That would be a much better use of your time without a doubt.

Now this is a comedy so you don’t want to go too hard on the characters but I do think that at least Mike’s friend should have faced some jail time in the end. He stole a car, stole the lotto ticket, then he also handled Holly’s things carelessly like when he tosses all of her stuff into the ground without a second thought. He just didn’t seem like a good person at all especially with how insistent he was on keeping the money. You feel like he needed to learn some kind of lesson even after things worked out. It all felt a little too easy in the grand scheme of things.

Ah well, obviously this is more of a feel good movie and so things are looked at through an optimistic lens. It’s not a bad thing per say but it can be a bit annoying. On the plus side, the writing and pacing as pretty good as you’d expect for a film like this. It does maintain a cheery atmosphere and it’s always fun to daydream about winning the lottery. The vibes are good all the way through and I don’t really have any other complaints with the film. Now the ending is quite hilarious though and not in the way the film thought it would be.

The characters have until midnight in order to cash in the ticket so they dash over to the place but then when the clock hits 11:59, they decide to start making out instead of going into the store. Rookie mistake!!! I was dying inside because I knew they didn’t make it in time and so the money went to waste. You could argue that it’s probably the most tragic ending to a film that you will ever see in your life.

Overall, Lucky Christmas is a pretty good film. I will always remember it for the ending because no matter what the writers may say afterwards, it’s clear that the heroes were too late. They fumbled the bag right up until the end and there was no way out of their predicament. The movie may not have always been realistic but it was definitely a fun ride and so I would recommend this title. Who wouldn’t want to have a lucky Christmas right? 2025 may just be starting up now but it’s never too late to watch a good Christmas flick.

Overall 7/10

A Christmas Blessing Review

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It’s time for a more classic kind of Great American Family title and this one is definitely up for the task. Sometimes when it’s Christmas time you can’t just be stuffing your face. Instead it’s time to make a difference in the world and that’s exactly what Mandy aims to do by bringing back a food pantry. It’s a movie that definitely stays fun all the way through.

The movie starts out with Mandy retiring from her food show which had been a global sensation. She is now going to travel the world and try all kinds of new food dishes but first she has to stop by her aunt’s home. Her aunt passed away and so this passed onto Mandy but apparently the place used to be a big food pantry. Mandy is convinced by one of her aunt’s old friends Otto that she should give the food pantry one last Christmas. She will have to work fast to get volunteers since the year is almost up though and will the new owner Adam be patient about this?

It can always be tough when you have a deal ready to go and one side backs out at the last second. So I can cut Adam some slack here because that’s rough no matter what the context is. That said, he is also pretty agreeable about it the whole time. He is even quick to help out with getting the food ready. He does end up getting a romance set up with Mandy so you could say he’s not being completely objective here but for the most part he does seem like a good guy so I don’t think it’s very far from the norm or anything like that.

I was also glad that he looked into the mysterious Otto to make sure that Mandy wasn’t going to be in any danger. That actually makes a lot of sense to me. Even if Otto wasn’t too mysterious, there is never anything wrong with doing a background check. Adam was a very realistic guy and so he did good in his role. Meanwhile Mandy was a solid main character. She was really able to put her food skills to good use here. Additionally, she was not too quick to give up or anything like that.

She is perhaps a bit trusting at times but I won’t fault her hard for that. Without her the whole food pantry wouldn’t have had a chance and in the end it turned out really well. Most characters wouldn’t be able to say they pulled this off. Of course the big MVP here was Otto. He showed up out of the blue and really played the sentimental card which got Mandy to go through with keeping the pantry up. Without him, she would have just closed it and gone off to eat at a restaurant.

He may be cryptic the whole film but he is definitely a good person. He does act very unnaturally though so you understand why the other characters doubt him. He makes sure to always answer every question very carefully so you can almost see him choosing his words. For that reason you know what he is saying is accurate but at the same time it could also be very misleading. Those are often the trickiest fellows to keep track of.

There is also a backup romance going on here with Adam’s brother (Or cousin, I forget exactly) and one of the volunteers but it feels very tacked on the whole time. It didn’t really need to be around and for the most part he was a jerk the whole time so I don’t see why she would fall for him. At one point he basically parks right in the street and isn’t very apologetic about the whole thing. Throw in the fact that he made a huge slip-up in the contract in the beginning and he was a very weak character here. You can’t be making mistakes like that when a huge part of your job is setting up these contracts.

The movie balanced out all the fun with realistic factors pretty well. For example at first we see everyone rejecting the pantry and the reasons are valid. One character explains that her company has to put everything in writing before the end of the fiscal year end so that way it all balances out perfectly. She’s not trying to rain on the parade or anything like that but it’s just the way the company policy is and she can’t go against it. I imagine that would be the case for most people, particularly since Mandy was trying to amass pounds and pounds of food. It’s not like pledging a sandwich for a party coming up or anything like that.

Then as the film goes on things begin to work out and it even takes some supernatural abilities. That helps take care of the realism part of it. Ultimately there was no way to do this without Otto pulling some strings and then the whole thing clicked. The movie’s romance is a bit on the weak side but beyond that, this is a quality movie the whole way through. The pacing is good and the writing is on point so I can’t really ask for anything more than that. This film could also have potential for a sequel. We know the pantry will keep going now but if they can squeeze in a plot of Mandy travelling the world, maybe the gimmick can be that she helps someone at every stop.

Overall, This was a pretty fun film. One of those movies that is just easy viewing for any time, but particularly during Christmas. The food looked good even if some of the fancier restaurant dishes were a bit pretentious for my liking. Seriously food never needs to be fancy, as long as it is tasty then that is good enough for me. A Christmas Blessing reminds you that at the end of the day you can always find a way to help people out. Mandy and her team put in the effort and helped quite a lot of people out. It’s a very heart warming kind of story.

Overall 7/10

Nowhere to Go Review

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After a heist, the average criminal will quickly realize that he has nowhere to go. You’re now on the run for life and eventually the law will catch up. Well that’s the general premise of this film and it definitely makes for a good thriller right out of the gate. It’s very high energy with a lot happening at all times and a really solid cast of characters.

The film starts off in the present with Paul escaping from prison and getting to a nearby hideout. We then get a flashback to the events leading up to this and the flashback was so long that I forgot it was a flashback halfway through the adventure. Basically he decided to swindle an old lady out of her famous coins collection. To do that, he quickly became her friend and took her out to dinner many times. Unfortunately she ended up trusting him so he sold the coins and split. The plan was always to get caught though. He figured he would do a few months and then be out in a snap but instead the judge sentenced him to 5 years.

So Paul breaks out and all he has to do is get to the safe where he has the money stored. If he can make it there then he is now rich and can make a new life for him. It won’t be easy though as his old partner Victor wants a bigger cut of the pie and the cops may be onto him. Paul can’t really trust anybody, he can’t even trust himself. Is he accurately seeing the world as it is or is he starting to jump at ghosts?

Paul really sells the role of the tricky villain here. He acts a lo like a classic Bruce Wayne kind of character. He’s very confident at all times and they say even in the real world that this is the real trick to being successful. When you have other people believing that you are in the right spot, then that ends up being the case. He certainly manipulate a number of characters here even if I think that it was a little convenient for him to meet a lady named Bridget who is into lost cases.

She even says she has a title to that effect and it is readily apparent as she is willing to help this guy. It’s not like Paul is a secret hero who has been framed or anything, he’s straight up a criminal. So it’s not admirable to see Bridget helping him, it just shows that she is not a good character either. It’s a pretty bad look for her and she is definitely one of the weakest characters in the film. She should have been trying to stop him especially with how suspicious the living arrangements were. From her point of view it would certainly seem like he did something to her fiancé.

Victor is a criminal just like Paul but he made for a solid rival. I liked how he was always laughing and was not afraid of Paul. No this guy was talking as big as possible and made sure that Paul knew the score. Victor just wasn’t a particularly smart guy. Threatening someone and then giving them all day to come up with a plan is never going to end well. He was practically begging Paul to do something to him the way that he acted. When you double cross someone, you’re going to need to bump them off right away or things are going to get messy. it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.

Paul made his own share of mistakes to be sure but nothing on that level. Of course each mistake is appreciated since you are rooting for the cops the whole time. You need Paul to be taken down because taking advantage of the elderly is absolutely one of the worst things you can do. There’s not really much coming back from that. This is yet another example of how the noir genre can churn out solid films even with the whole cast being bad.

There really aren’t any characters to root for here and yet the film is still pretty good. So why is that? Well, that’s because the story and writing are really on point. You may not have someone to root for but you certainly have someone to root against. The film never gives the villains too many wins or makes things too dark but still establishes why you want them to fail. The movie is very measured about this at all times and the pacing is also good. You’re really at the edge of your seat here.

The movie may not be really long but they certainly squeeze in a whole lot of action. The film also covers a long period of time as the main character’s dinner dates are shown in montage format. You can assume this was over the case of weeks to maybe even months. A successful criminal is often looking at things in the long term which is why you really need to keep your eyes open and not lower your guard. You never truly know another person after all and before you take the leap of faith you better give yourself a lot of time to think about it.

Overall, Nowhere to Go is a very solid film with a satisfying ending. I would definitely recommend it to any Noir fans. It reminds you to always keep a careful eye out because it is so easy for anybody to be lying about something. Particularly if you are in a new environment then you need to be able to analyze things on your own without being told. The more you can figure out on your own, the less susceptible you are to being tricked. This goes 10 fold if you are rich or have something worth a whole lot of value. People will tell you any kinds of stories to get close to you and you just have to be able to see through that. It may be a tough burden to get around but at the end of the day it is your burden. The price of being rich as they say.

Overall 7/10

Looks like Christmas Review

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It’s time for a Christmas battle as two parents and their ideologies clash. I like it when the two main characters are going up against each other like this because it often makes for really good banter. At the same time it will also usually mean that the romance will end up being rather cheesy. It just doesn’t make sense to get together with someone that you’ve been fighting with right? Well that’s the dilemma that this film has to deal with.

The film starts off with Terry and his daughter moving yet again and so it’s time for her to make friends. She isn’t thrilled about this so Terry decides to be a good sport and try being more involved with the school this time. So he joins the board and plans to help with the Christmas ceremony. Apparently it’s been a massive succeed every year and so Terry decides that they should switch things up. He announces that a new approach is in order which really rubs the lead of the festivities, Carol, the wrong way. She will have to stop this.

Now that clearly wasn’t the film’s intent but it’s definitely how I took it. Carol is a hardcore traditionalist who likes doing things the old way. If she has a system then that will absolutely remain as the system for many years to come. She is well loved by the whole community though and we are told numerous times that everyone loves the Christmas party. So it’s not a negative and a lot of this is exposition. Terry only knows on a very basic level that she is loved and likes her traditions.

So when he shows up at the meeting and immediately says that they should try something new, it makes no real sense. The film should have had someone tell him that the party was boring or the kids didn’t like it. That would have given him reason to blow it all up but instead he comes off like he’s picking a fight. Then the principal is also on board with it right away which is a bit iffy. You’d think he wouldn’t want to risk anything here and making Terry the co-chair with Carol was a bold move.

You could say he was just trying to help Terry fit in but I would say that it was all a bit much. Carol was mainly a jerk to Terry for the rest of the movie and clearly in the wrong in most instances but at least you can say that Terry started the fight. Terry does well with the ideas and participating though. I don’t really have any issues with him as a character. There is a dilemma in the film later on where his daughter gets mad at him for not being around more but the way I see it, there wasn’t much more he could do. He was really trying his best and that should be good enough. Terry is under a lot of pressure in a rather high stress environment after all.

The film stacks the deck a bit here as he is also in charge of shutting down the library that Carol is fighting for. He comes through with a pretty good solution at least but once again it brings you to the main challenge which is why Carol would fall for him at all. There’s just too much bad blood for most of the film in order for this to work out. So like most Hallmark films you do have to get past the romance but then the rest of the film is really solid.

As expected, the kids are the weak links here. The daughter comes off as rather annoying with how she blames her father for everything. He does make promises too easily which is something she could call him out for but otherwise she made the whole thing too dramatic. Carol’s son was more reasonable although his study group was rather bad. They clearly weren’t focused much at all and it seems like the kind of place to go if you don’t mind dropping a few points on your next exam. Otherwise there isn’t much reason to go through with it all.

I spoke a lot about Terry but not so much on Carol so lets get to her. For starters I would say she is a solid character. While she is an antagonist for most of the film with Terry, we do see that she is kind to everybody else and has long been known as an upstanding individual. Generally speaking if you have someone like this, then I will still consider them to be a good character. If she had an attitude with everybody then it would be different but that was not the case.

When there is just friction with one person you can cut a whole lot of slack for her. If anything I think it would have been nice to have seen some more support for her from different townsfolk. Maybe have the principal and a few others find out about Terry’s big library mission and defend her or call him out. I’m thinking the film wanted to be careful about totally burning any bridges or making thing too personal but I do think it would have been nice for her to have had some characters in her corner. Instead she was practically gaslit at times into thinking she was the problem. There’s one scene where Terry buys her a Christmas tree and I totally get why she would be upset there. That’s the kind of thing you want to do on your own and she was completely in the right about getting rid of it. At least that’s how I see it.

Overall, Looks like Christmas is a pretty good film. The banter and conflict for most of the film definitely helped to elevate it. I always find that it makes the film a lot more energetic and this title was certainly no exception. It goes by quickly and the film is able to solve the dilemmas without it being too cheesy. The Christmas party also looked pretty fun so that was nice. The romance tends to be a bit more on the eye rolling side but hey that’s just how it goes sometimes. I would definitely recommend checking this film out. It’s a good film for the Christmas season.

Overall 7/10

One Christmas Eve Review

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It’s time for one of those classic Hallmark films and this one definitely gets intense as someone even pulls out a gun. I wasn’t expecting that so it really showed that this would be a different experience. It makes for a fun title and has a good amount of humor in it. The romance may not hold its own as well as some of the others but the story still keeps it all afloat.

The film starts off with Reggie finishing up a tough shift at work only to find that someone left a puppy outside. He can’t leave it alone but doesn’t really want to spend the effort and time of taking care of it. So he aims to leave it outside the door of a random person but he trips on the ice and breaks his leg. The lady named Nell showed up and helps him but now she’s stuck with the dog and taking care of this guy. She takes him to the hospital but then one of her kids falls in a trap and gets injured. Could it be that the dog is somehow causing them all bad luck?

You could say that the whole film is basically a long string of bad luck after bad luck for all of the characters. They just can’t escape it and gradually the group gets larger as this also includes a night watchmen/security guy who gets in trouble as well. All they want is to enjoy a nice Christmas but the goal gets farther and farther away. This even includes a house burning down so the characters really go through a whole lot here. The film does a good job of keeping the bad things funny without it ever getting too mean spirited though.

This is a happy/wholesome Christmas film first and foremost though. That said, it is also why there would really be no shot at a romance here. After the crazy day that Nell had and how it’s basically 90% Cesar’s fault you don’t really forget that. Nell’s a solid heroine though as she always tries to do the right thing and didn’t just ditch Cesar immediately. She was definitely verrrrry reluctant for a while there but ultimately did things with a good nature.

Her kids were a little more on the annoying side since they didn’t contribute much. The daughter was really bad at singing and didn’t seem to be making much of an effort to improve her skills. The son was busy falling into holes and getting into trouble which didn’t help anybody. Cesar is a character who has his whole character arc and everything but ultimately I wouldn’t say he was a great character. You have to wonder if he really changed or if he’s just nicer now since he likes Nell but otherwise is the same person on the inside. The whole thing with leaving the dog on the front porch like that is super hard to get away from.

I’d say Reggie was easily the most entertaining character. He always had a good one liner for the occasion and he’s a quick study. He went from just knowing a few lines in Spanish to knowing quite a bit during the latter part of the film. The guy also handled being held at gunpoint rather well compared to the rest of the characters who would have probably been panicking a whole lot. The movie did a super good job with the music and atmosphere for that moment too. You could feel the danger.

Then we have Dr. Chen who is another solid character. He was ready to support the heroes as needed even while the nurse was trying to rush them out. He had a lot more common sense and wasn’t just going to be pushed around. It’s always good to have a friendly face out there because otherwise the heroes were really going to be on their own. The film tries to have the nurse suddenly be a little more friendly during the climax but it definitely didn’t work out so well. It was too little too late as they say.

Because the characters are always moving it also makes the plot feel pretty expansive. It already had more main characters than the average film so it was nice to see them all pal up and everything. A film like this is only as good as its writing o fortunately the film didn’t falter there. You could tell that most of the characters were still good people and so that was the same as usual except they just weren’t immune from the bad luck. Like we had a moment where a guy comes over to help tow their car and naturally it goes terribly. Usually that would have instantly been the solution but not here.

I like the idea of a dog that brings bad luck as well. It makes you face a difficult dilemma because the dog himself is quite innocent but it’s not a super comforting thought because you are going to be experiencing the bad luck either way. I was glad that the characters don’t take it out on the dog either. Reggie for example is quick to defend the dog when the nurse tells him to take it outside. He wasn’t about to obey that order and that’s a good thing because it would have absolutely tanked his character!

Overall, One Christmas Eve is a pretty fun film. It doesn’t feel quite as much like most other Hallmark movies since there is so much travelling and running around instead of staying in one place but it still has the right vibes. You’ll have a good time watching the movie which is the most important part as well. The writing is solid and the pacing is good so there aren’t really any issues. If you’re up for a film about how a bunch of strangers all band together to support each other during the holidays, then this is the title for you!

Overall 7/10