Tag Archives: christmas

Sha Na Na S1 E22, E23, E24

Posted on by

I finished up Sha Na Na’s first season on YouTube this morning with three pretty good episodes. I do believe that some of the errors that the show did in the first half of their first season were addressed midway through and it did seem better.

Episode 22 kicked off with Blue Moon, which was strange because I am almost certain that that song has already been done on the show. I don’t think that it was just the pilot episode either. I didn’t go back through my reviews to see, but it felt very familiar. The last song of the season was sung by Dirty Dan, and it was Dream Lover, which, again, I thought I had already heard this season. I’m not sure it was a good sign if they were repeating songs just during their first season.

They continued with the musical acts as guest stars instead of comedians or actors. Dion, Marth Reeves and the Vandellas and Bobby Vee all were able to perform and added so much to each episode. The poor comedy was kept to a minimum and the show became more of a musical variety show.

Martha Reeves stuck around after her song and did some jokes with Bowzer and Lennie, both of which were funny. You can do that if it is written well.

Sha Na Na does a fantastic job of finding the right voices to blend together. They had the song Charlie Brown sung by Screamin’ Scott and Jocko, and they sounded great together. Then, they had their best singers< Johnny, Bowzer, Donny, Santini and Denny doing Remember Then, which is sensational.

In episode 23, they did one of the comedy bits where they all dress up and they called it Swine Lake. At first, I thought to myself, “What am I watching?” but as it went on, I started picturing it as an act on the Muppet Show. Had this been the pigs from the Muppets doing this “ballet” I wouldn’t have blinked at it. So, by making Sha Na Na human Muppets, I found much more enjoyment in the skit than I would have before.

Avery Schreiber, who has been a cabbie all season long, came into the diner and did a skit/song where he danced like a robot. It was a bizarre moment. It was another that kind of grew on me and I liked the effort of him doing something different than just drive his cab onto the set and bring the guest star. Apparently, the song was called Mechanical Man and it was a song Avery Schreiber wrote the song as a way to express his unhappiness over how he was being seen as an actor.

Dirty Dan had several songs in this block of three including Dream Lover, Da Do Run Run, and part of the Mexican skit in episode 22.

The comedy bit song in the 24th episode was Ahab the Arab, which was a song b Ray Stevens. I was surprised, since I thought this was too recent for Sha Na Na to do it. However, I did a quick Google search and it said that the song was released in 1962, meaning it fell right into Sha Na Na’s wheelhouse.

This brings to a close season one of the variety show. I am curious to see if there are any changes from season one to two or if the changes they made in the middle of season one will just continue.

Merry X-Mas from EYG

Posted on by

Merry Christmas to all out there from EYG.

It’s not Christmas for me until I watch Muppet Christmas Carol. Of all the Christmas traditions, this is the one that I look forward to the most.

Among the dozens of adaptations, this is my ABSOLUTE favorite version of A Christmas Carol.

Michael Caine is the perfect Ebenezer Scrooge. He accomplished this feat by playing this completely straight. He played Scrooge, as he said, “like I’m working with the Royal Shakespeare Company” and not dancing, singing Muppets. Line delivery was spot on and the facial expressions brought Scrooge to life.

Another reason he is great in this film is that we see Scrooge’s humanity right off the bat. As soon as the Marley Brothers (preformed by Statler and Waldorf) showed up, you could see Scrooge begin to change. I have never liked the versions of Scrooge that feels as if he does not change until he sees his tombstone in the future. That feels insincere. Michael Caine’s work is just fantastic.

The movie is also a surprisingly accurate translation of Charles Dickins’ work. Many lines are exactly as they appear in the novel. I mean, of course, there are plenty of changes and adjustments to the film. It is narrated by a rat and a … whatever… in Gonzo the Great and Rizzo the Rat.

The design of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come are brilliant. The Ghost of Christmas Past is just a child Muppet, but it is, arguably, the creepiest of the three. This Muppet had the perfect touch of the uncanny valley to make her frightening. I love the Ghost of Christmas Present. He always reminded me of Santa Claus. Yet to Come is the classic Grim Reaper version and looked remarkable. The Jim Henson Company was at its best with this puppetry.

I am not ashamed to say that the scene where Kermit and Miss Piggy talk about the death of Tiny Tim breaks me every time I watch it. There is just something about Kermit and Miss Piggy grieving that is just unnatural.

There are some great songs in the film. The “Scrooge” anthem that started the film off is fabulous as is the “One Sleep ’til Christmas” sung by Kermit. Above all of them though, my favorite is the song sung by the Ghost of Christmas Present called “”It Feels Like Christmas.”

I am grateful that I can watch this at any time on Disney +.

The Leftovers S1 E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Two Boats and A Helicopter”

This episode of The Leftovers was different than the first two and focused on a different character, to outstanding results.

Christopher Eccleston appeared as Reverend Matt Jamison, whose church was facing financial struggles. In fact, it was up for sale by the bank after foreclosure. The bank had allowed him to continue with his church but once there was a buyer, he would need to get out.

Of course, this episode’s conflict began when there was a buyer.

The bank allowed Matt a chance to beat the price, in cash, of the other buyer, but he had a deadline of the next day at the end of business hours.

We see the perspective of Matt through the episode as he desperately tried to find the $135,000 he was going to need. He wound up with $20,000 given to him by Kevin Garvey Sr, the former police chief that had been buried in the Garveys’ backyard.

He took that money and went to a casino, playing roulette three times, winning each. He made $160,000.

That was when the real troubles began. Another patron of the casino tried to rob him, but Matt fought back violently. Then, Matt stopped to help a member of the Guilty Remnant who had been hit in the face with a rock by a passing by vehicle. Before he could finish the call to 9-1-1, the vehicle returned and hit Matt in the face with a rock as well.

Matt had a series of prophetic dreams and memories of the past. When he awoke, he rushed back to his car and took the money to the bank. He came to find out that he had been in the hospital for three days and the church had been sold… to the Guilty Remnant.

This was an excellent episode with a stellar performance from Eccleston. The roulette wheel sequence was tense and filled with suspense. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen as the wheel went around. I picked out the guy who attacked Matt… saw that one coming, but Matt’s response was brutal and unexpected. His kindness nailed him though when he stopped to help those people. I knew something was going tohappen.

At the end, all I could think of was his housekeeper, who he hadn’t paid for three weeks, and who he asked to watch over his comatose wife on Monday when he went to the casino. He left her there for three days and we never found out what happened with her.

This was very different from the first two episodes and shows an effective style of storytelling.

2025 Genre-ary: Documentaries

Posted on by

2025 kicks off with our third annual Genre-ary. We started with Sci-Fi movies. Then we did Musicals. This year, we will be doing Documentaries.

Again, this will be documentaries that are movies or shorts. There will be no doc series such as the Jinx. Of course, it is a DailyView which means I will be watching a movie every day in the month of January that I have never seen before.

I have compiled a list of documentaries from over the years that I have not seen before. Some will be well known ones, some will be ones we have never heard of before. I will be including some 2024 films instead of waiting for the June Swoon.

I will keep the tally of the Genre-ary on this page.

2025 Genre-ary: Documentaries

Wednesday, January 1: The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (2024)

Thursday, January 2: The Amazing Jonathan Documentary (2019)

Friday, January 3: The Turnaround (2024)

Saturday, January 4: An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Sunday, January 5: Remembering Gene Wilder (2023)

Monday, January 6: ReMastered: Tricky Dick and the Man in Black (2018)

Tuesday, January 7: The Blue Angels (2024)

Wednesday, January 8: In-spi-ra-tion (2023)

Thursday, January 9: Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show (2017)

Friday, January 10: ReMastered: The Two Killings of Sam Cooke (2019)

Saturday, January 11: Nature Boy: 30 on 30 (2017)

Sunday, January 12: Hoop Dreams (1994)

Monday, January 13: Will & Harper (2024)

Tuesday, January 14: Have You Seen Andy (2007)

Wednesday, January 15: The Rocket on the Roof (2016)

Thursday, January 16: Bigfoot: Fear in the Woods (2020)

Friday, January 17: 65 Roses (2019)

Saturday, January 18: Daughters (2024)

Sunday, January 19: Amy (2015)

Monday, January 20: MLK/FBI (2020)

Tuesday, January 21: The Thin Blue Line (1988)

Wednesday, January 22: MoviePass, MovieCrash (2024)

Thursday, January 23: Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405 (2016)

Friday, January 24: American Tragedy (2019)

Saturday, January 25: Whitney (2018)

Sunday, January 26: Misha and the Wolves (2021)

Monday, January 27: Last Breath (2019)

Tuesday, January 28: There’s Something Wrong with Aunt Diane (2011)

Wednesday, January 29: Capturing the Friedmans (2003)

Thursday, January 30: Invasion on Chestnut Ridge (2017)

Friday, January 31: Girl in the Picture (2022)

Doctor Who Special 5: Joy to the World

Posted on by

Spoilers

Doctor Who returned to Disney + with the fifth special, Joy to the World, a Christmas story featuring Ncuti Gatwa and Nicola Coughlan.

I believed Nicola Coughlan was going to be the next companion, Joy, but that turned out to be incorrect. She becomes even more as she becomes a star and it turned out to be a star shining over Jerusalem in the year 0001.

The Doctor had to figure everything out by rushing through the Time Hotel, where he had to spend a year waiting to be able to access the Time Hotel once again. During that time, he befriended a co-worker at the hotel, Anita, and spent the year befriending her and spending time with her in chairs, something he realized that he did not have on the Tardis.

I loved the section where the Doctor had to wait a year and then just went and told his old self the briefcase code, which he had been told by himself. It was a loop and I loved how clever it was to have him find out the code by having himself tell it.

The whole time travel idea can be difficult, but I did like how this episode removed the potential time paradoxes with the Time Hotel.

This was emotional, joyous and a treat during this holiday season. I have loved Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor and I hope he has a good long run as the character. I am looking forward to the next season and the potential return, at least for some episodes, of Ruby.

4 stars

2024 Year in Review: The X-Mas Movie of the Year Award

Posted on by

I was struggling with this award this year. This is one of the most recent awards we give out during the Year in Review. It came around because I wanted to give Violent Night a specific award.

Here are the list of winners

The X-Mas Movie of the Year

Previous Winners: Violent Night, The Holdovers

You can see there has only been two winners so far. I could have gone back and retroactively given this award out to films such as Netflix’s Klaus, Home Alone, Christmas Vacation, The Muppets Christmas Carol, Scrooged or (sorry Bruce) Die Hard. Heck, I could have named this award the Die Hard Memorial X-Mas Award (I really wish I had done that).

Looking at the Christmas movies that I had watched this year, all I had was Red One. Red One was disliked by a lot of people. I did not hate it, but it was not very good for sure. There was an animated movie on Netflix called That Christmas which was in consideration, but sadly I only thought it was passable too. The second half of that movie was really great to be fair, but I was bored through the beginning.

I chose to go to a film today because I did not have a distinct choice for this award. It was a film that I had no interest in seeing, but had a great Rotten Tomatoes score. I had a lazy Sunday planned and there was a 9:15 AM showtime at Cinemark and I thought that would be a good opportunity.

The movie I saw this morning is officially the winner of this award…

Winner: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Based on a novel, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever was funny, well written, and full of interesting characters who have to decide what Christmas means to them. This was a really solid movie and it works extremely well as the winner of the….

Hey, a good idea is a good idea!!!!

From now on, this award will be known as this.

Ho-Ho-Ho

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Posted on by

It was a strange path to arrive at me watching this movie. After seeing trailers, I had zero interest in going to see this Christmas movie. It looked very much like a Lifetime special and Christmas is down my list of holidays. I had pretty much decided I would not go to this.

Then I started doing the Year in Review and I realized that the only Christmas film that I had seen this year was Red One, and that was, at best, okay. It felt wrong to give it the X-Mas Movie of the Year Award so I watched an animated movie called This Christmas on Netflix. Sadly, it was just around okay too. I then looked at the Rotten Tomatoes score for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and it was at 91% critics and 97% audience. This made me wonder if I should take this basically open weekend and go see it. It was only an hour and a half. How could that be painful? So even with a doubt in my head, I went to Cinemark this morning for a 9:15 AM showing.

This was really a good movie. I liked this way more than I ever expected.

Historically, I have not been a fan of the faith-based movies, but that is not what this is. This is a movie featuring characters who are being reminded about what Christmas means to them, and how important the Christmas story can be for them. It was about characters. And it was really well done.

Based on a popular novel, we are introduced to The Herdmans, a family of six children who were the biggest troublemakers in the town of Emmanuel. They were feared by children and adults alike.

At this time, the director of the local pageant broke both of her legs, making her unable to continue to do her duties. Grace (Judy Greer) volunteered to take over the job. Unbeknownst to her, the Herdmans decided to come and join the church’s pageant (to get the snacks they were told would come with it). The Herdmans, led by the scary Imogene (Beatrice Schneider), forced their way into the main roles of the pageant, which just happened to be the 75th Annual event.

This was well written, solidly acted and had some genuine funny moments. You can’t but help to like the antics of the Holdman kids, and you can see the diamonds in the rough beneath their surface, especially Imogene. Young Beatrice Schneider does a fantastic job in the role, bringing a humanity to this character that is gruff and unappealing on the surface.

I will admit to getting kind of emotional during the film. I was amazingly impressed with the kindness and unbelievable patience shown by Grace, who could have easily bowed to city pressure and dumped the Holdmans from the play. As a teacher, I was inspired by the way she reacted to these troublesome children and watching the Holdmans respond to the play and trying to answer the questions they naturally had (by a trip to the library) was awesome to me.

You kind of knew what the film’s resolution was going to be, but it was well constructed and still managed to tug on those heartstrings. This was one of those times where predictability was not a negative.

As a Christmas movie, this is much better than much of the sentimental slop that is out there and it gives us a chance to really question if we know the true meaning of Christmas.

4 stars

Red One

Posted on by

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Chris Evans and J.K. Simmons star in the new Christmas themed film, Red One, opening this weekend to a large budget.

Santa (JK Simmons) is preparing for his yearly trek across the globe when he gets kidnapped. Cal (Dwayne Johnson), head of St. Nick’s security, has to reluctantly team-up with 4th level naughty-lister Jack (Chris Evans), the man who unwittily provided specifics for the kidnapping to be successful, to save Christmas.

Johnson, Evans and Simmons are all very likable and entertaining in this movie. Johnson is playing the same version of The Rock that he always plays, but he is enjoyable at it. Evans’ character is another version that we have seen before.

The story had some fun moments, but truthfully there was not much that we have not seen before. I did like the Krampus (Kristofer Hivju) section of the film, but we saw a good chunk of this in trailers. In fact, one of my favorite lines of the trailer was not in the film. Still, I did like the section.

Some of the special effects looked great, but a lot of the CGI was not great. Again, most of the Krampus parts of the movie were good, mainly because they seemed to be mostly practical effects.

I had heard a lot of negative reviews about this movie, but I did not hate it. It was okay. It may not be a great movie, but it is about what you would expect when you watch it. It has a place as a Christmas movie watch that can be fun for the family. It is never going to be considered a classic, but it has likable actors and some fun action.

3.1 stars

Moonlighting S3 E8

Posted on by

Spoilers

“It’s a Wonderful Job”

Moonlighting had some great Christmas episodes. We are up to the “It’s A Wonderful Job” episode from season three, which, of course, is a parody of the all-time Christmas classic “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

Everything is set up to have Maddie alone in a bar after making a public wish that she had never kept the agency open. She is approached by her guardian angel, Albert, who goes ahead and shows her what her life would be like had she closed down Blue Moon instead of keeping it open.

Miss DiPesto was a cruel, cold businesswoman running a greeting card company. David married Cheryl Tiegs. Maddie would be fated to kill herself in a car crash.

There are some really good scenes with Cybill Shepherd, especially the scene on the roof of the building with Albert. She was very subtle with her facial expressions, but you could see them change depending on each situation.

Along with Cheryl Tiegs, there were some fun cameos. In particular, Lionel Stander, who played Max on Hart to Hart, an earlier detective show on ABC. Stander was playing Max here as Blue Moon had become Hart Investigations in this alternate future. We also saw Charles Rocket once again as David’s brother Richie. This is the first time in awhile since we saw Jack Blessing as Mr. MacGillicudy, one of the staff workers at Blue Moon.

Again, I found Herbert Viola’s presence in this episode to be fine. I am curious to see when my abject hatred of this character starts because so far I think he has been used very well.

This is a strong episode to follow the best episode they ever had with Atomic Shakespeare. The third season was on fire at this point. Although the kiss at the end of the episode with David and Maddie was confusing, since it felt as if something had changed, but they do not reference it again.

What If…? S2 E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

“What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

What a delight.

‘Twas the morning before Christmas

And I couldn’t sleep

So I popped on What If…?

Season two just for keep.

The Avengers were tussling

With a purple freak,

Inside Avengers Tower

Things looked really bleak.

The Watcher took us back

Before things got too charred

And we realized the show

Was a nod to Die Hard.

With Happy and Darcy,

And Maria Hill, too

While Justin Hammer dances

As he is wont to do.

From a purple “Hulk” Hogan

Whose punches are stiff,

Merry Christmas to all

From the world of What If…?

This was an unbelievably fun episode that filled me with joy… and not just Christmas joy. Die Hard is one of my all-time favorite movies, so seeing Marvel put an Avengers-spin on it was so epic. 

And then, the actual writing of the episode was so good. Christmas puns and tropes scattered throughout and great use of two secondary characters in Happy and Darcy that we all love. There was some great comedy in this episode and the use of the actual Avengers was just perfect as well. Was this the first What If…? episode that included Tony Stark where Stark did not die?

This was the first episode this season that did not feel as if it had a rush to finish. I thought the pacing of this was spectacular. 

And the return of Justin Hammer, voiced by the one and only Sam Rockwell, as a stand in for Hans Gruber, was inspired. Sam Rockwell sounded as if he was having a blast with the character. You could hear the lilt in his voice. The fact that Marvel is able to get these huge stars to come back and voice their characters in this animated series never fails to blow my mind. Sure there are some who are voice actors (hiya Lake Bell), but the fact is this episode had Mark Ruffalo back for like two lines of dialogue. Jon Favreau, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Kat Dennings, Cobie Smulders were all here for this episode.

And that Happy Hulk Hogan fight with the Iron Man suits/robots in the hallway was amazing. The oil splatter, replacing blood, as the purple hulk rampaged through the suits was some special visual storytelling. There were plenty of visual jokes/bits that helped tell this story. 

Legitimately, this is probably my second favorite What If…? episode of the entire series, only behind the S1 E4 Supreme Strange episode, and that is just barely ahead of this.

Merry Christmas to all…

Up to Date Running Order:

E3  ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

E1  “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”

E2  “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

Merry Little Batman

Posted on by

This is probably not for hardcore Damian Wayne fans.

If you can get past the fact that Damian Wayne, who is typically a very dark and violent character, is smoothed into a family friendly cartoon version of the character, then you will enjoy this hectic, engaging and fun-filled animated romp. If taking the darkness out of the story bothers you, well, skip this one.

I am not offended by the edginess removed from the Bat-Family, so I was able to watch and enjoy the Merry Little Batman special on Amazon Prime.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, “This Christmas, Damian Wayne wants to be a superhero like his dad–the one and only Batman. When Damian is left home alone while Batman takes on Gotham’s worst supervillains on Christmas Eve, he stumbles upon a villainous plot to steal Christmas and leaps at the chance to save the day.”

Luke Wilson voiced Bruce Wayne/Batman in this movie, which was an interesting choice. It definitely revealed the changes of the character since fatherhood took over. Yonus Kibreab voiced Damian and James Cromwell was Alfred Pennyworth.

Several iconic Batman villains make their appearances too, including Joker (David Hornsby), Penguin (Brian George), Poison Ivy (Therese McLaughlin) and Bane (Chris Sullivan).

Animated in a family friendly way, Merry Little Batman is absolutely directed to a younger audience, but it did not lose the humor or the message to the story. Damian learns a valuable lesson about being a superhero, about sacrifice and about Christmas.

This is a lot of fun and, if you allow yourself to enjoy the film, you will. If your preconceived notions of what Batman or Damian Wayne is supposed to be, then you may get in your own way.

3.75 stars

Candy Cane Lane

Posted on by

It is Christmastime and that means it is time for some movies that are targeted toward the family and may be sugary sweet and silly.

That is a very good description of the new film on Amazon Prime, Candy Cane Lane, starring Eddie Murphy.

According to IMDB, “A man (Eddie Murphy) is determined to win the neighborhood’s annual Christmas decorating contest. He makes a pact with an elf (Jillian Bell) to help him win–and the elf casts a spell that brings the 12 days of Christmas to life, which brings unexpected chaos to town.”

There is a lot of dumb, holiday fun in this hokey family film. Eddie Murphy is always great and he is in full Christmas mode here. There are actually several moments through this film where the movie avoids those pesky family film clichés. There are tropes that you expect, but he film does not go down the same path.

Jillian Bell is funny as the villainous Pepper. The mini figurines of the others who failed the task was clever. Nick Offerman, Chris Redd, and Robin Thede was fun as these little characters.

There was a lot of dumb in the story too, but I found it inoffensive and cute at times. I think if a family’s looking for a funny film to watch for Christmas, you could do worse than this.

3 stars