Change Your Image
mwhaught-98636
Reviews
Jingle Smells (2023)
A new Christmas movie for my holiday rotation!
I was pleasantly surprised by this film! I was expecting this to be little more than your typical low budget, independent film. What I found was a piece of work that showed heart and values.
While it make anyone forget It's a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street, it fits its niche well. The cast performed well. John Schneider is always good to see on screen. Brad Stine was a hoot! Victoria Jackson did her over the top comedy as only she can do!
The messaging could be clunky at times. The narrative would have been served with a little faster pace. But I enjoyed it a lot! How could you not like a film where the kids get a Christmas against the odds? And Santa makes a cameo!!
Hollywood (2020)
Started out interesting, soon became silly and ended a sad spectacle
The first couple of episodes made this promising. Soon, it began detouring from anything in the universe of reality and started throwing in apparent fantasies of what the screen writers felt should have been instead offering remotely plausible scenarios. It ended on such an eye rolling note of nonsense for 1947 that you wonder why you bothered.
Rob Reiner is a decent caricature of a studio boss. Patti Lupone reminds us that, in spite of being a wonderful stage actress in musical theater, she is a stiff, wooden uninspiring presence on screen. She can't do what makes her a force on stage and never figured out what translates in portraying emotion and humanity in front of the lens. David Corenswet is talented and his character is probably the best written and acted. Jake Picking was never given a chance with his Rock Hudson character. Jim parsons as Henry Willson is nothing but cartoonish camp. Then they go and make Willson, a man who was one of the Harvey Weinsteins of his day, a transformed man. From a rapist of young men, who would do anything to be a star, to a sympathetic character who apologized for his depravity. In reality, he was abandoned by his industry and died of cirrhosis while destitute.
Any time a production gets your eyes rolling in the middle act and ends with you screaming, "You gotta be kidding me!" it likely is not a winner. This one isn't.