One of the most redone and rebooted stories of all time is the Christmas classic by Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. There are dozens of versions of the novel on the screen and stage over the years. Netflix has jumped back into this well once again with a new animated film that returned us to the well worn story of Ebenezer Scrooge.

As we know from the classic tale, Scrooge (Luke Evans) was a miserly businessman who thought Christmas was a ‘humbug.’ When he was approached on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his old partner Jacob Marley (Jonathan Pryce) who warned Scrooge that he would be haunted by three ghosts in an attempt to save Scrooge from a fate worse than death. Scrooge then departs on trips to the past, present and the future to see Christmastime in a new light.

While the original story is flawless, this new version of A Christmas Carol has some strange choices and, in the end, feels like it is lacking the magic of several of the other adaptations.

Luke Evans is fine as Scrooge. Some of the other voices involved in the film do fine work too. Jonathan Pryce, Olivia Colman, James Cosmo, Jessie Buckley, Trevor Dion Nicholas, Jemima Lucy Newman, Rupert Turnbull, Johnny Flynn, and Fra Free provide their voices adequately.

Some of the odd choices really pulled me out of the film. For some reason, they gave Scrooge a dog named Prudence. It appeared as if Prudence was left to Scrooge after the death of Jacob Marley. I have no idea as to why the producers of the film felt the need to insert a dog into the story. Prudence brought nothing of significance to A Christmas carol and just gave one more character in the background.

They also seemed to \change names of some of the characters from the story. Scrooge’s sister Fan became Jenn. Scrooge’s nephew became Harry instead of Fred. The flipped around some of the Cratchit family names as well. This may seem to be a minor point, but I do not understand the reasoning behind any of this and, because of that, I was distracted by the new and, not better, names.

I disliked the character designs, especially that of The Ghost of Christmas Past and The Ghost of Christmas Present. Both of these characters were very interesting as they have both been considerably more interesting than we get here. Past became way too energetic and I did not like the manner in which she was presented. I assume they did this to give Olivia Colman more of a character to play, but the trade off was not worth it.

Ghost of Christmas Present was accompanied by little creatures called Cheerlings, which were little spirit like things that felt more like the Minions than anything else and were there for no reason outside of a few sight gags. They are there to engage the children watching the film so they do not have to worry about things like plot.

The songs were mostly forgettable. As I sit here now, I cannot remember anything about any of them. They were fine in the moment, but I have no desire to hear them again.

Most of the changes that they made to the story just did not work and took away from the overall narrative.

The sad fact is, Netflix clearly wanted an animated version of the classic story for families to watch together. If you want a family version of Charles Dickens’ classic, I would suggest you watch Disney’s A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey or the brilliant Muppets Christmas Carol, my own personal favorite version of the story in any format. Scrooge: A Christmas Carol takes the familiar story and does nothing of interest with it.

2.5 stars

This movie had no right to be as good as it was.

Violent Night was falling into that category of films that take one of the beloved characters and make them a vicious killer. We had one with Winnie the Pooh this year and there is a Grinch one coming up. Neither look to be much more than what you expect. Violent Night, however, takes the premise and expands upon it with a lot of heart and more character depth than I ever thought there would be.

Santa Claus (David Harbour) is dejected and depressed, taking a break from Christmas Eve at a local bar, knocking back some beers. He had become disgruntled with the world and the attitudes of the children at Christmas time. He is seriously considering hanging up the sleigh bells.

Meanwhile, the wealthy and rotten family of the Lightstone clan were meeting for their annual Christmas Eve get together. Young Trudy (Leah Brady) is the light of the group and just wished that her father Jason (Alex Hassell) and mother Linda (Alexis Louder) would just be back together. Meanwhile Jason’s sister (Edi Patterson) was hoping to suck up to their mother and head of the Lightstone family business Gertrude (Beverly D’Angelo).

Unfortunately for the Lightstone family, a crew of thieves, led by Mr. Scrooge (John Leguizamo), arrive at the Lightstone mansion ready to steal a load of money in the safe inside the house. The take the Lightstones hostage and Santa, who happened to be at the house at the same time, gets caught in the crossfire.

David Harbour is perfectly cast as the downtrodden St. Nick. He delivered the requisite puns with a serious tone, making them all the more outlandish. Harbour and Leah Brady, who is fantastic as Trudy, have an easy connection that is as believable as anything in this over-the-top movie. That connection between Santa and the child is at the heart of the film.

Speaking of heart, Violent Night had way more heart than I ever expected it to have. Is there violence? Absolutely. A ton of it. And really creative and awesome fights, but what made this movie more than just another action movie was the Christmas magic that the film rightly used. The script was really smart and I believed everything that these characters were going through. These characters made sense and their motives were clear and easy to follow.

I have to say that I even fought off a few tears in the third act. I sat in the theater telling myself that I was not going to cry in Violent Night.

This film is a combination of Die Hard with Bad Santa. What if John McClane was a Santa Claus instead of a cop?

No spoilers, but… Skullcrusher… yeah, baby!

Violent Night had all the best parts of a revenge thriller and a family Christmas redemption tale. Ho ho ho.

4.5 stars

I was looking at Netflix for a film to fill the afternoon hours when I came across a movie called The Lost Patient. It was in French, but the premise sounded intriguing so I thought I would give it a try.

The premise listed on Netflix said, “After waking up from a coma with no memory of the night when his entire family was murdered, a young man and his psychiatrist try to untangle the truth.” It was listed as a mystery with a tone of ominous and dark. It sounded good.

It was not.

The film, which starred Txomin Vergez as Thomas, the boy who spent three years in a coma, was really slow, intentionally misleading and fairly predictable. It seemed to want to base the plot on the twist that came near the end of the film, but you could probably see it coming if you paid attention.

After seeing the reveal, there were scenes from earlier in the movie that did not make much sense. With classic twist ending such as The Sixth Sense, when you find out the truth, everything falls into place and when you rewatch it, you see things that you hadn’t seen upon a first watch. The Lost Patient, however, only muddied the rest of the film with what it revealed at the end. It also brought some absolute question on some of the behaviors and choices of the other characters of the film.

I was fooled into the movie, though the runtime was just an hour and a half. Despite the shorter run time, it felt fairly long.

2.2 stars

The new biographical film Devotion gives the MCU fans something to really look forward to.

Devotion revealed the story of the first black navy pilot, Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors) and his wingman Tom Hudner (Glen Powell), who flew missions at the beginning of the Korean War.

Why should the MCU fans be excited about this? Because Jonathan Majors is utterly awesome in this film and he is about to become the next big-bad in the MCU, Kang the Conqueror. We saw him in the final episode of season one of the Loki series and he will next appear in Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania. With his amazing acting skills, there could be some wonderful moments ahead.

As for Devotion, Majors is winning throughout, but the film itself is a tad slow and dragged in places. Jonathan Majors commanded everyone’s attention when he was on screen, but the rest of the film was okay, at best.

It is a true story, based on the 2015 book Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice by Adam Makos. I was unaware of this story so the eventual ending for the movie was surprising. Directed by J.D. Dillard, Devotion probably suffered from being in the same year as Top Gun: Maverick. The flying scenes were fine, but unremarkable and when you have such an example of high quality flight, it is difficult not to compare them.

There was interesting aspects of the race, looking at how black people were treated, even a navy pilot, in the 1950s. While this was definitely part of the story, it did not dominate the script or overwhelm the film.

Jonathan Majors is a star on the rise (not only in the MCU, but also upcoming in the next Creed film) and he helped to elevate this film above what was on the page.

3.2 stars

David Cronenberg returned to the director’s chair to helm this science fiction, body horror movie that is currently being shown on Hulu.

Body horror has never been one of my favorite subgenres of horror, but I was interested in this film because of the sci-fi aspect and the fact that Viggo Mortensen and Kristen Stewart were in the cast.

Unfortunately, this one did not grip me.

I will say that the film started off with a compelling scene between a boy (Sotiris Sozos) and his mother (Lihi Kornowski), but the film took too long after this scene to build upon it, and it went into a different direction that i was simply not into.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, “As the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and mutations. With his partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux), Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen), celebrity performance artist, publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances. Timlin (Kristen Stewart), an investigator from the National Organ Registry, obsessively tracks their movements, which is when a mysterious group is revealed… Their mission — to use Saul’s notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.”

There were just too may gross moments and none of the prescribed themes seemed to mean much of anything to me. Mortensen is always good, but he seemed to be sleepwalking through this.

Since it was a futuristic world, perhaps my trouble was that I did not fully buy into the setting, which made everything else lacking. Then, everything was so dreary and uninteresting to watch that it felt like a bog.

I did not like Crimes of the Future despite a high Rotten Tomatoes score. If body horror is your thing, perhaps you would like to check this one out. It was not for me.

2 stars

Steven Spielberg is back in the director’s chair with a movie that is very much a fictionalized version of his own younger life in The Fabelmans, revealing an adolescence filled with strife and troubles from his parents.

Growing up in Arizona in the 1950s, Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle) discovered a love for creating movies. As he continued to do more filming and editing, Sammy discovered a secret that he was not expecting that threatened to create chaos within his family.

Sammy’s parents, Burt and Mitzi, were played by Paul Dano and Michelle Williams, respectfully. Both actors were outstanding in their roles. Paul Dano created a sweet, kind-hearted Burt Fabelman who, while incredibly intelligent, was missing a lot of what was going on around him. Mitzi Fabelman was anything but likable. She was selfish though she had a deep love for her children and had a special relationship with Sammy.

The Fabelmans showed how important movies were to the world, especially the family unit. We see Sammy grow and mature while dealing with the knowledge of the secret that he discovered in his filming. The Fabelmans is a sort of coming-of-age story.

Mitzi Fabelman seemed to be quite the mess. Though it is never specifically mentioned, the film implied that there was some form of mental illness going on with her. Michelle Williams does a great job of still creating a character that can be rooted for despite choices that were really poor. Mitzi was not very likable, but Burt was always kind and supportive, even though he was spending more time at work in an attempt to avoid some issues. There is a question about how much of the secret that Burt actually knows and when he knew it.

There were some tough scenes to watch during this movie, and all of the actors involved did an exceptional job. Seth Rogan is great as family friend Bennie. In the most standout of performances, Judd Hirsch was remarkable as Mitzi’s estranged uncle Boris. Hirsch only had a few scenes in the film and a minimal amount of screen time, but his impact was massive.

The film may have been a touch long at two hours and thirty-one minutes. There are a few scenes of filmmaking that could have been reduced a touch, but there is not a lot that I would want to remove from the screenplay.

Though this movie may not be as magical as some of Spielberg’s other movies, The Fabelmans gave a usually entertaining, at times funny and always poignant look at the years that inspired him to become the director that he is. The complications felt real and left a challenge for the young teen who struggled to find his way. The scenes with the bullies seemed too typical, but I did like how that resolved itself.

Great performances, solid writing and a love of cinema helped to make The Fabelmans another success in the oeuvre of Steven Spielberg.

4 stars

Benoit Blanc, the most famous detective of the world, returned to the screen in his second adventure, this time in a Netflix movie that debuted for the next week in theaters. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will arrive on Netflix around Christmas, but started the film on the big screen. The sequel to the excellent Knives Out continued the entertaining story telling with an (almost) all-new cast.

Daniel Craig returned, of course, as Benoit Blanc, the southern drawl spouting brilliant detective, along with a great ensemble that included Ed Norton, Dave Bautista, Janelle Monáe, Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr, Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, and Noah Segan.

Benoit Blanc found himself invited to a private island by wealthy businessman Miles Bron (Ed Norton) for a weekend murder mystery he was hosting for several of his personal friends. However, when the murder becomes no longer fictional, Benoit Blanc joined in on the case, trying to determine which members of the guest list were a murderer.

As it was the last time, the writing of the film is excellent, with Benoit being provided some of the best lines. The film does a solid job of introducing the large cast right off the bat, providing the details on these characters. You know who these people are immediately and the film does the heavy lifting to make that so.

This film was funnier than I remember the original one being. This was more outright funny, while the original had humor, but I do not think back on it as an overtly funny film. There is more humor here, and most of it worked well.

The movie, once again, played with the POV of the story, giving a couple of different perspectives on the same events, showing the audience what had actually happened. One thing that I wished the movie would do more is allow the audience a chance to “play along” with the mystery. They do not let you be the detective. There is no way to solve the case before the movie wants you to.

Daniel Craig is great as the remarkably intelligent and observant Benoit Blanc. When he played off the other enigmatic characters from the ensemble, Craig really shined.

The film took place right smack dab in the middle of the Covid pandemic in 2020 and they make references to the masks and to social distancing.

I was enjoying the mystery, seeing how things fit together after initially being unsure what was going on. I will have to say that the third act, especially right at the end of the third act was considerably weaker than the rest of the film. While it did not spoil the film for me, it did feel too silly, reducing the stakes of the movie downward.

And the movie ended with the credits being run while playing The Beatles’ Glass Onion, which I haven’t heard in quite a long time. That was a special treat.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery may not have been as outstanding as the original and it did have an ending that did not seem to match up with the quality prior to it, but I had a lot of fun with the film and I would be excited to see continuing adventures of Benoit Blanc.

4.25 stars

With the release of its latest animated film, Disney has gone ahead and given the Internet Trolls another reason to bitch about “wokeness.” I can hear them in my head already with their special brand of hatred, which is a real shame, because Strange World is a wonderfully beautiful movie, both visually and story-wise. And now the Trolls will never be able to appreciate Strange World in the proper way.

All because of a certain relationship, one that is only hinted at, one that was in the flirting stage, between two male characters. A relationship that is not what the film is about. All it does is inform you about the character of Ethan, but I know there are plenty of people who can not get past their own hatred.

As I said, Strange World is a magical ride with amazing animation, remarkably creative creature designs and some excellent voice over work.

In fact, I spent much of the movie trying to determine the actor voicing the main protagonist, Searcher Clade. I knew the voice sounded very familiar, but I was having difficulty in placing whose voice it was. Finally I settled on it being Jake Gyllenhaal, and it turned out that I was right. Gyllenhaal did a really good job providing the voice for Searcher.

Strange World reminded me of an old pulp series where the adventurer went exploring and found action, but ended up in some kind of science fiction plot. An Indiana Jones, Doc Savage, John Carter style of character. This was a welcome tone with some brand new pulp heroes to enjoy.

However, there was more than just the pulpy goodness. There was also a double generation of daddy issues as we wound up with three generation of Clade men, all with distinctly differing life choices, but all with the same general struggle. It handled the father’s expectations for his son and his desire to see him follow in his footsteps, and the rejection of that desire by the son. We see this go full circle through the backdrop of the adventure story.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, Strange World introduced “a legendary family of explorers, the Clades, as they attempt to navigate an uncharted, treacherous land alongside a motley crew that includes a mischievous blob, a three-legged dog and a slew of ravenous creatures.”

The legendary explorer, Jaeger Clade (Dennis Quaid) and his son Searcher (Jake Gyllenhaal) were in search of a path around the mountain that surrounded their village, Avalonia. Searcher rebelled against his father when he found a powerful new plant and wanted to take it back to Avalonia. Jaeger refused to return without finding the path through the mountains and wound up disappearing for 25 years.

Meanwhile, Searcher grew up a farmer raising that plant, called Pando. He had his own family, including his son Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White) and his pilot wife Meridian (Gabrielle Union). When something started happening to the Pando, Searcher was recruited to go on a mission to try and save the energy-creating plant. On the trip, they find themselves in a strange, bizarre world filled with apparently dangerous creatures.

The film is beautiful to look at. The visuals were so full of color that gave this new world a feel of uniqueness. The computer animated film was amazing and will certainly engage the younger viewers. Parents should enjoy the smorgasbord of vibrancy on display in Strange World.

I also enjoyed the score to the film. Henry Jackman scored the film and provided so many perfect beats and musical touches that stood out to me and, many times, I do not notice the score. This one worked very well witht he style of film they were going for.

I know there will be snarkiness tossed at this film, much like the beautiful Pixar film, Turning Red, had to deal with earlier this year. It’s too bad that the Trolls can affect the perception of a movie. Don’t listen to them. Go and enjoy the film for its own merits. It is worthwhile.

4.4 stars