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Remember the Titans (2000)
Remember the Titans (2000)
2000 | Drama
Denzel Washington (1 more)
Will Patton
Fight For What You Love The Most
Remember The Titans- is a excellent movie. Its powerful, moving, heartwarming, dramatic, family-moving, and based on a true story. Also it has a excellent cast. Both Denzel Washington and Will Patton are excellent. I didnt realize that Ryan Gosling was in this. He is so young in this. Anyways its a excellent football movie.

The plot: In Virginia, high school football is a way of life, an institution revered, each game celebrated more lavishly than Christmas, each playoff distinguished more grandly than any national holiday. And with such recognition, comes powerful emotions. In 1971 high school football was everything to the people of Alexandria. But when the local school board was forced to integrate an all black school with an all white school, the very foundation of football's great tradition was put to the test.

Its excellent.
  
Bad Santa 2 (2016)
Bad Santa 2 (2016)
2016 | Comedy
Meh
The original movie was a real guilty pleasure. Dark, twisted, funny and something very different from the million other saccharine and sentimental Christmas movies out there. The sequel is unfortunately very disappointing, it seems to think just consistently swearing is an acceptable substitute for actual humour . The writing is very weak and none of the actors look like they want to be there. It feels like a contractual obligation and a waste of talented actors like Billy Bob Thornton and Kathy Bates. The delightfully weird sandwich obsessed Thurman Murman does provide a bit of amusement and a few callbacks to the superior original but overall this is a poor sequel.
  
Mary Poppins Returns (2018)
Mary Poppins Returns (2018)
2018 | Family
Good but not as memorable as the original
To be honest, I'm kind of struggling to know what to say about this. The main thing is, I enjoyed it, and the rest of my family loved it too. It just wasn't enough to leave any big lasting impression on me. The songs are all good, usually accompanied by some wonderful visuals and fun choreography, but none of the songs are particularly memorable. There's nothing that I can imagine being as repeatable, or as catchy as 'A spoonful of sugar' for example. Emily Blunt is wonderful as always and the movie does a fantastic job of paying homage to the original Mary Poppins and keeping to the style and tone of the movie, there's just something missing that I can't quite put my finger on. I can remember leaving the cinema after seeing The Greatest Showman a year ago, having the songs stuck in my head, downloading the soundtrack and wanting to see the movie again. I didn't really feel like that at all with Mary Poppins Returns.

That being said, this is still a good fun family movie and if you enjoyed the original you should find enjoyment in this. With all the doom and gloom in the world right now, the world definitely needs something like this for all the family to enjoy at Christmas time.
  
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John David Washington recommended Glory (1989) in Movies (curated)

 
Glory (1989)
Glory (1989)
1989 | Drama, History, War

"Glory. Mr. Ed Zwick. I believe the original story was more concentrated on the officers, and what Ed seemed to find was the movie — and I love when that happens, when he lets the movie dictate how he should cut it or lets the movie dictate how he should roll it out — and it became about those soldiers. And he didn’t seem to manipulate any of the greatness that was going on in that film. He wasn’t arrogant about having an understanding of the culture. He seemed to appreciate it and understand. They’re bringing these actors that are bringing out the culture and the stuff that I could never anticipate, I could never prepare for, that was not on the page. It was transformative. The whole thing was. It was not only a history lesson, it was a meaningful time in the business of diversity and seeing characters that look like me — you know, that they were my color — in the business at the time have that sort of platform to embrace the inner workings, from the slave trade to the first soldiers, the emancipated men. I felt like that was such an important film. I knew every line for every character. I mean, I lived that movie. It was my upbringing. That was my school, basically. I literally knew every line. From Robert Gould Shaw to Frederick Douglass’ one scene. I knew that line too. It was kind of crazy. I wanted a blue suit for Christmas, and I broke the VHS tape and I wanted a new VHS tape for Christmas, too. And also the score. Hearing that score with those black faces — you see it in Barry Jenkins’ films as well. I just felt like Ed Zwick deserved more credit than he got. He should get more recognition. He made, I think, a perfect film, too. I think it’s a perfect film."

Source
  
Die Hard (1988)
Die Hard (1988)
1988 | Action
Over thirty years on, John McTiernan's superlative action movie continues to thrill and delight audiences, as well as become rightly acclaimed as one of the great Christmas films, guaranteed to warm the heart - at the end, the terrorists/criminals have been defeated, the McClanes have been reconciled, and Al the cop has rediscovered the joy of gunning people down in the street.

Strange to think that, contractually, the producers were initially obliged to offer the lead role to Frank Sinatra - in the end, the film shows what can happen when you take two actors with almost no track record in movies and invest a little trust in them: Bruce Willis' sweaty, frantic turn as the blue-collar McClane makes him a new kind of action hero, while Rickman's status as an exceptional thief is confirmed by the way he steals the movie. Good jokes, terrific action sequences, and a deceptively clever script: one of those films that will always be as great as you remember.
  
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Erika (17789 KP) rated Hustlers (2019) in Movies

Sep 28, 2019 (Updated Dec 29, 2019)  
Hustlers (2019)
Hustlers (2019)
2019 | Drama
I had zero expectations going into this film. First, I had watched a 20/20 episode on the real life strippers that this was based on, and basically, the movie took the concept and made it a sort of BFF film. The people Ramona and Destiny's characters are based upon were definitely not friends.
This movie was drawn out and boring. It was a LONG hour and 49 minutes. A lot of the scenes were unnecessary, and would not stop going. I thought the Christmas scene would never end.
Something was off about Constance Wu, she was very wooden and again, boring. Also, while Cardi B and Lizzo appear in the film, they're more like cameos, which is a shame. The Usher scene, while unnecessary, was one of the best in the film. Usher looks the same as he did back then, and it's super creepy.
I'm not sure why this had all the buzz at TIFF.
  
The Lodge (2019)
The Lodge (2019)
2019 | Drama, Horror, Thriller
Smh
Contains spoilers, click to show
So a father leaves his kids-with a woman he's planning to marry- for a few days in a remote cabin. Just when his kids need him most(because their mother killed herself in the beginning) and goes off to work(at Christmas time). Somehow, he has ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA idea just how mentally damaged/unstable she is. This movie eas a slow, tedious, mind-numbing burn that just fizzles out in the end(horrible ending). The acting was decent and the cinematography was too. It had creep factor, I'll give it that, but the story was just... sad. These kids go through hell through pretty much the entire film because of this psychotic ex-cultist and it ends up being their last days. You genuinely feel bad for them, but overall this was just a weird movie strangely pieced together that built up to....nothing. Her craziness wins out. NOT worth a watch.
  
A Fool's Gold Christmas (Fool's Gold, #9.5)
A Fool's Gold Christmas (Fool's Gold, #9.5)
Susan Mallery | 2012 | Contemporary, Romance
10
9.5 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
Fun Christmas Read
This is a great book for anyone looking to get into the holiday spirit. The plot is much like that for your typically Hallmark movie, and I for one love it.
Evie is a dancer who finds herself in the small town of Fools Gold after she is injured. The story follows her as she reconnects with her family, and fights against her attraction for the boy next door.
This is technically part of a series, but you do not need to be familer with the other books to enjoy it. I do want to read the other books as soon as possible now. Mostly in hopes of my favorite characters making an appearance.
  
Lost At Christmas (2020)
Lost At Christmas (2020)
2020 | Comedy, Romance
4
5.0 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
'Tis the season for Christmas cliche and Lost At Christmas certainly fits the bill... but stay tuned for a "pleasant" surprise?

When life changes very suddenly for two strangers they need to make their way back to their normal lives, but it's Christmas, and the simple journey home becomes something of an epic adventure across the Scottish Highlands.

I have realised that many years ago I found myself in a very similar situation to the one in this film, though thankfully I wasn't the one travelling anywhere. I have never really considered how difficult it might be to do this sort of journey... I'm fairly certain that I wouldn't do what this duo do... but you never know! So quite how believable this scenario is I can't say, but it does allow for the expected drama.

There's a great Doctor Who contingent in the cast and I loved Sylvester McCoy and Frazer Hines as Ernie and Frank. They're a fantastic little double act and McCoy definitely helped areas of the film that struggled. Jen, played by Natalie Clark, was quite a likeable character and I enjoyed the performance, but it was difficult to get anything more out of it once she was paired with our leading man. Rob, played by Kenny Boyle, was the chalk to Jen's cheese, he's gruff and mean but doesn't really have the redeemable qualities these characters have in reserve that make you root for them at the end of the film, coupled with the bland performance I found myself hoping that another stray singleton was going to appear and sweep Jen off her feet.

In my notes I tried to do some maths... maths in a film review?! I know! It baffled me too. There felt like discrepancies in Rob's timeline with his girlfriend when you compare their initial interaction and his reveal to Jen later on. It may just be me overthinking it, but when it came up my reaction was confusion, these things are easily foiled by vagueness but... *shrug*.

There's some beautiful scenery involved throughout the film but when you mix it with the obligatory Christmas film shenanigans you're not getting to enjoy a lot of it. Even its use in the opening titles wasn't great. The main backdrop of the pub is fun, though there are some issues with the use of space. Some shots make it seem expansive and some claustrophobic, and there's one shot in particular that made me audibly groan. Nearly everyone is in it, adults talking, teens (about four foot away from the rest of the cast) kissing... no... no kissing teens are putting themselves in that position, especially not these two. There would have been plenty of opportunity to have them in the back of this shot had the camera had a different angle.

The thing I think we should acknowledge about this film though is that it has some balls. Whenever I discuss romcoms and Christmas movies there are always a handful of scenarios that make me say "wouldn't it be great if these films did [insert realistic scenario here]?" Lost At Christmas went for it! Yeah... so it turns out... I want the cliche! Real-life sucks and actually, I'd rather bitch about things being unrealistic than see something that is much more likely to happen. Well done for doing it, but to quote my notes... "F*** THIS FILM!"

Lost At Christmas has so much potential in it. Let's take a look at my scale... You have bad Christmas films, very few fall into this category because they usually drop down so far that they get pushed back up the scale to "so bad they're good". Right next to "so bad they're good" is a general level for Hallmark-esque schmaltz (NOTE: this isn't to say that Hallmark movies won't break out into other areas, this is just a general descriptor for films that are pretty consistent in their watchability and themes... AKA: quality Sunday holiday fodder.) Then of course we have the Christmas classic level, that holds things like Home Alone, Klaus, Love Actually and Die Hard. Lost At Christmas is somewhere in the snowdrift between bad and schmaltz. With a bit more glitz and a few changes I could easily see this film being a hop, skip and a jump over the other side of Hallmark schmaltz as something you don't just watch because it started on the TV and you can't change the channel because you're holding down wrapping paper with one hand and have a spiral of sellotape in the other.

Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2020/11/lost-at-christmas-movie-review.html