Noelle (2019)
Occasionally charming, if overly familiar. Santa’s daughter finds her true calling and breaks through the North Pole’s glass ceiling. Gets a little bogged down with muddled and cliched messaging / signaling and some tired tropes but, it still puts your average TV movie to shame production quality-wise,There are a few lazy plot decisions, the second act drags, and drags, and the CG isn’t the best, but the performances are above average, if one note.
I realize this isn’t exactly a rave review but a Disney original - part of the day one launch of their “Netflix-killer” streaming service - gets held to a higher standard. If this had been on Hallmark or Lifetime flick I would have been more effusive in my praise. This is in another league compared to those network’s offerings.
Plus, while I’m resigned to pop culture secularizing Christianity out of Christmas it took Noelle to show me that Buddhism is the reason for the season.
Also, while this is no doubt considered a family film, they kill off Santa (off-screen obviously) which might, despite even the present year replacement by a, eventually, magically perfect pretty girl, upset some of the younger set. This was also my beef with The Santa Clause.
Is it Hallmark? Nope, Disney+
Guest stars? Shirley MacLaine, Julie Hagerty, Michael Gross.
Does it look like Christmas? During the North Pole sequences.
Does it sound like Christmas? Sure.
Does it feel like Christmas? On and off.
Did it make me cry? Of course not.
Laugh? A few times.
Did I finish it? Yep.
Is it a good movie? It’s okay.
Is it a good Christmas Movie? I don’t see it becoming an annual tradition but it’s very good for the genre
The Christmas Pageant (2011).
Unemployable Broadway director takes on small town Christmas Pageant.
Above average Hallmark. Reminds me of older, pre-algorithm flicks from the crown. No work of staggering genius but better than most.
Is it Hallmark? Yes
Guest stars? Edward Herrmann, Kate Flannery, Steve Lawrence
Does it look like Christmas? Pretty much
Does it sound like Christmas? Sure
Does it feel like Christmas? Enough
Did it make me cry? It almost got me a couple of times
Did I finish it? Yep
Is it a good movie? It’s okay
Is it a good Christmas Movie? Pretty good
Steptoe and Son - The Perfect Christmas (1974)
1974 Christmas special from the show that inspired the wildly inferior Sanford and Son. A bitter holiday tour de force with a terrific final punchline.
Christmas Episode or Special? Special
Am I familiar with the series? Quite
Is it Christmassy? Fairly.
Would I Rewatch? It’s a tradition.
A Christmas Carol (1959) (Rifftrax version 2018)
Typically guffaw stuffed riff from the lads, this time of a festive episode of Fredric March Presents Tales from Dickens. Basil Rathbone stars as zombie Andrew Jackson, um I mean Ebeneezer Scrooge in this half hour version of the evergreen tale.
