Christmas in Cinema

by Jack Garcia

Sometimes the best Christmas moments in film come from movies that aren't even "Christmas movies" at all, so while none of the following movies qualified for my 25 Christmas Films for December 25th, they definitely contain some music to get you in the holiday spirit.

The first video I'd like to share is Doris Day and Gordon MacRae singing "Christmas Story" in the 1951 movie musical On Moonlight Bay.  The movie is about a tomboy named Marjorie who moves with her family to a small town in Indiana where she meets her neighbor William.  While initially unhappy with the move, she falls for William and puts aside baseball for more ladylike things.  In this scene, the two are beginning to fall in love at Christmastime.



In 2004's comedy Mean Girls by writer Tina Fey, Cady (Lindsay Lohan) is a new student trying to fit into her new high school with the hottest clique of them all:  the "Plastics."  In this scene, Lindsay Lohan and the other girls are performing a routine to a recording of "Jingle Bell Rock" at the school's Winter Talent Show when a technical difficulty causes Lohan to have to sing.




In the 1974 film version of the musical Mame, Lucille Ball plays the title character who is fun-loving eccentric with plenty of money to burn in the 1920s.  Her life changes entirely when she becomes the guardian of her nephew Patrick after her brother passes away.  In this scene, Lucille Ball sings "We Need a Little Christmas" as they decorate her home for the holidays.



In the 2007 live-action/computer-animated reboot of the classic cartoon Alvin and the Chipmunks, Dave Seville (Jason Lee) comes across three adorable chipmunks named Alvin (Justin Long), Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler) and Theodore (Jesse McCartney) who not only talk but sing!  He writes them the song "Christmas Don't Be Late" and it's that song that propels them to stardom.  This scene features the Christmas tune and serves as a montage showing their rising popularity.



To finalize this post, I decided to save the best for last which of course would be Judy Garland's performance of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" which originated in the musical Meet Me in St. Louis.  The movie is about a family who very much loves their hometown of St. Louis and has just found out they will be moving to New York City.  The daughters all prepare for the move in different ways, and in this scene, Judy Garland is singing to her character's little sister, trying to convince her that everything will be okay.



I hope you enjoyed these Christmas music clips from the movies!

25 Christmas Films for December 25th!

by Jack Garcia

It's time for Christmas movies!!  I hope you enjoy my countdown of my own personal favorites... and be sure to let me know yours in the comments section below!

25.  Christmas with the Kranks (2004)

“You’re skipping Christmas?  Isn’t that against the law?”  I know this movie is pretty stupid, but I like it for some reason.  Maybe because Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis are funny… or maybe because this list of 25 had to start somewhere.

24.  I’ll Be Home for Christmas (1998)

This movie came out during my Jonathan Taylor Thomas phrase when I had a huge secret crush on him.  Now it’s just one of those 90s favorites that I have to watch every year.

23.  Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)

Not as good as the first one, but I really love the slapstick humor of the Home Alone movies.  I never grow tired of seeing Harry and Merv get their butts kicked.  Oh, and this one has Tim Curry in it!  Awesome!

22.  Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997)

21.  While You Were Sleeping (1995)

“$45 for a Christmas tree and they don't deliver?  You order $10 worth of chow mein from Mr. Wong, they bring it to your door.”  Maybe this isn’t really a “Christmas” movie per se and more of a romantic comedy, but it does take place at Christmas time and it’s all about love and family!

20.  Home Alone (1990)

“This is Christmas.  The season of perpetual hope.  And I don't care if I have to get out on your runway and hitchhike.  If it costs me everything I own, if I have to sell my soul to the devil himself, I am going to get home to my son.”

19.  White Christmas (1954)

18.  Prancer (1989)

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this movie, but I still remember it!  It tells the tale of a young girl who finds an injured reindeer who she thinks belongs to Santa.  It’s very endearing.

17.  Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983)

“Remember, Scrooge, you fashioned these memories yourself,” says Jiminy Cricket as the Ghost of Christmas Past.  This version of the Dickens classic isn’t feature length, but it sure is fun!  Scrooge McDuck plays Ebenezer and Mickey plays Bob Cratchit in this Disney animated treat!

16.  Arthur Christmas (2011)

This is the newest movie on the list, but I really enjoyed it and I know that I’ll be watching it annually now come Christmastime!  Be sure to read my review!

15.  Elf (2003)

14.  Love Actually (2003)

“If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion... love actually is all around.”  This movie is about eight different couples during the holiday season in England and it’s full of good moments and a stellar British cast.  Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Keira Knightley and others really sparkle in this romantic comedy.

13.  The Holiday (2006)

Like Love Actually, this one is another Christmas “chick flick” but I really love it!  Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz play two women unhappy with their lives who agree to swap houses during the holidays… and sometimes I wish I could do the same!  Jack Black and Jude Law also star.

12.  The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

11.  Miracle on 34^th Street (1947)

In 1994 they did a remake of this holiday classic, but don’t watch it!  Stick to the original!  The old man who plays Santa in the Macy’s parade is institutionalized as insane, a lawyer defends him by saying he’s the real Santa and a young girl teaches us all to believe again.

10.  A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

“I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus.  Christmas is coming, but I'm not happy.  I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel.  I just don't understand Christmas, I guess.  I like getting presents and sending Christmas cards and decorating trees and all that, but I'm still not happy.  I always end up feeling depressed,” Charlie Brown laments.  Later Linus recites the story of Christ’s birth and says, “That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”

9.  The Santa Clause (1994)

This movie caused me to misspell Santa’s last name for years!  It’s C-L-A-U-S without an “e.”  A clause is a provision in a contract, making it a witty play on words in the title.  Anyway, spelling aside, I’ve always liked this movie and watched it every year growing up.  All the many sequels need to die though…

8.  It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

“You see George, you've really had a wonderful life.  Don't you see what a mistake it would be to just throw it away?”  Sometimes the holiday season can be a bit depressing, and it’s so good to remember just how wonderful are lives really are.

7.  Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964)

6.  How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)

Who doesn't love Dr. Seuss?  His books have inspired many animated shorts and full-length movies and the cartoon version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is probably the most popular one.  Don't watch the live-action remake with Jim Carrey, but rather the classic 60s version that tells of the Grinch who's heart was "two sizes too small."

5.  The Polar Express (2004)

I originally didn’t like motion capture and I was resistant to this film… but I eventually saw it and loved it.  Just as the book beautifully invokes a sense of magic and wonder, so does this film by Robert Zemeckis starring the voice of Tom Hanks.  I still hear the bell!

4.  A Christmas Carol (2009)

This is another movie by Robert Zemeckis using motion capture and a very faithful retelling of Charles Dickens’ holiday classic.  Jim Carrey does a terrific job as Ebenezer Scrooge and the animation is just fantastic to behold!  “God bless us every one!”

3.  National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

“Where do you think you're going?  Nobody's leaving.  Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas.  No, no.  We're all in this together.  This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here.  We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny f***ing Kaye.  And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse.”

2.  The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

1.  A Christmas Story (1983)

“You’ll shoot your eye out!”  My family always watched this movie religiously, every year, multiple times, so this Christmas comedy had to be number one on my list.  Everything is so memorable to me, from the leg lamp to the Red Ryder BB gun to the fluffy pink bunny suit… and thanks to this movie, I knew better than to stick my tongue on a frozen flag pole!

Movie Reviews: A Shadowy Eve in Paris

by Jack Garcia

It's movie time!  Last Sunday Michelle, Brian and I went to see Midnight in Paris which finally made it to Orem, Utah after being released for six months.  I'm not the most patient guy, so movies that start off in "limited release" sometimes drive me crazy.  They are usually the best films and I instead waste my time watching movies like New Year's Eve... which you'll read about in just a second.  But at least I didn't have to wait long for the new Sherlock Holmes!

Midnight in Paris AWESOME!

In this comedy by director Woody Allen, Owen Wilson plays Gil, a talented Hollywood writer who’s struggling to write his very first novel.  The novel is about a man who runs a nostalgia shop, which mirrors perfectly the fact that Gil longs to live in the past.  Paris in the 1920s to be more exact.  He and his fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams) are traveling with her parents, and while all Inez cares about is shopping with her mother or going out dancing with her friends, Gil falls in love with the French city and walks the streets at night.  It is then, at midnight, that he enters a world of yesteryear full of the greatest artists and writers the 1920s ever had.

This movie was positively delightful to watch, and the characters and their dialogue were so full of wit and insight that I found myself laughing quite freely while feeling enlightened at the same time.  Not the easiest thing to accomplish.  Gil’s time traveling is never really explained , which I thought was the film’s greatest strength, and the characters he meets there—Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll), F. Scot Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston), Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates), Salvador Dali (Adrien Brody) and Picasso’s lover Adriana (Marion Cotillard)—were all robust historical caricatures while still showing their humanity.  Cotillard was fantastic in this film, as was Owen Wilson, and the final message that the lives of others aren’t necessarily better than our own was well received.  This is a terrific film for anyone who’s ever had writer’s block and needs a bit of inspiration from the masters.

New Year’s Eve AWFUL

If you want to see lots of movie stars—like I did—then this is definitely the movie to see.  There are a ton of celebrities including:  Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Robert DeNiro, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Katherine Heigl, Jon Bon Jovi, Sofia Vergara, Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michelle, Sarah Jessica Parker, Abigail Breslin, Josh Duhamel, Hilary Swank, Ludacris, Hector Elizondo and Ryan Seacrest… just to name a few.

However, if you want to see a movie that is funny or interesting or moving or good in any way at all, then this is not the movie to see.  While it’s kind of fun to see Lea Michelle and Jon Bon Jovi (playing a pretend rock star named Jensen… why?) sing a couple of songs, there’s not much going for this movie.  It’s not very amusing and when it tries to be emotional it falls flat.  The biggest problem it has is that with so many characters and storylines—and I use the term “storyline” loosely—none of them get any of the time necessary to make it compelling.

Bottom line:  If you want to see a lot of stars in one place, just watch the red carpet coverage of the next big awards ceremony or grab a celebrity gossip magazine next time you’re in the grocery store.  I guarantee you it will be more satisfying.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows  ADMIRABLE

Robert Downey Jr. is back at it again in this second installment of the Guy Ritchie twist on the Arthur Conan Doyle classic character.  This time Holmes and Watson (Jude Law) are up against Professor Moriarty, who is equally as intelligent as Holmes but with aims far more sinister.  Apart from toying with Holmes and threatening to kill Watson, he’s trying to start a world war now that he’s obtained control over all the weapons and bandages… a pretty ambitious goal for a university professor.  Also involved is a gypsy woman named Simza (Noomi Rapace) who fears her missing brother might be involved in Moriarty’s schemes.

This movie was a lot of fun to watch last night at the midnight showing with my friend Michelle.  The crowd laughed at the silly buffoonery of Holmes—like when he dressed in “urban camouflage” or donned a woman’s get-up—and applauded his astute observations and expert fighting techniques.  And let’s face it, these movies are fun to watch… especially the love/hate chemistry between partners Holmes and Watson.  Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. are the perfect bromance and these movies wouldn’t be successful at all without them.  That being said, the plot of A Game of Shadows wasn’t quite as interesting or thrilling as the original film and there were times that I honestly didn’t comprehend the purpose behind their actions.  It wasn’t until the final act that my adrenaline got going and things made sense… but that might have been the idea.

Television: Golden Globe Nominees Announced!

by Jack Garcia

The 69th Golden Globe Awards will air on January 15, 2012 on NBC and the nominees have been officially announced!  Of course everyone wants to know what Joaquin thinks about the nominees, so here we go:

• For Best Picture - Drama, two of the nominations are movies I haven't seen which makes me sad.  War Horse hasn't come out yet, so I guess it's not my fault, but The Descendents has been playing for a couple of weeks now just not in a theater near me.  Someday I hope to travel to The Broadway Theater in Salt Lake City to see it.  The other nominees I have seen and I love, including The Help, Moneyball, The Ides of March and my very favorite Hugo.  Fingers crossed for Hugo!
• For Best Picture - Comedy or Musical, there are once again two nominations that I haven't seen, also because they aren't in the Provo/Orem area.  These movies are My Life with Marilyn and The Artist, both of which are on my Most Anticipated Movies page.  Hopefully I can see all the nominees before the winners are chosen!  The other comedy nominees include three of my favorite films this year: 50/50, Midnight in Paris and Bridesmaids!
• For Best Animated Feature Film, pretty much every animated movie this year is nominated except for Kung Fu Panda 2 or Rio, which I actually liked more than Cars 2 or Puss in Boots which did get nominated.  The other three nominations I'm more impressed with:  Arthur Christmas, Rango and The Adventures of Tintin.  Tintin hasn't been released yet so I haven't seen it, but my current favorite for the win is Rango.  I loved that movie!
• I don't really watch drama series on television, so I don't know anything about those nominations!  I do have a friend that will be really excited to know American Horror Story was nominated though... Yes, Wes, I mean you.  But for Best Television Series - Comedy, my three favorite shows are all nominees:  Glee, Modern Family and New Girl.  This is New Girl's first season and I'm really excited to see it on the list!  The other two nominees, Enlightened and Episodes, I've never seen so I don't know what to say about them.
• As far as actors and actresses go, these are my favorites in their various categories:  Viola Davis for The Help, Leonardo DiCaprio for J. Edgar, Brad Pitt for Moneyball, Kristen Wiig for Bridesmaids, Joseph Gordon-Levitt for 50/50, Zooey Deschanel for New Girl, Sofia Vergara for Modern Family and Eric Stonestreet for Modern Family.

Can't wait for the Golden Globes!

The Gleek Critique: "Extraordinary Merry Christmas" Episode

Mercedes sings "All I Want for Christmas is You" to open Glee's Christmas special.

by Jack Garcia

Christmas is here!  And do you know what that means?  Holiday-themed episodes on television, and Glee was no different.  The night opened with Mercedes and the other club members singing and decorating the choir room's Christmas tree (or "Holiday Tree" if you live in Rhode Island) and it immediately evoked a spirit of fun and merriment to get the episode going.

Plot-wise, Coach Sue asked Artie, Kurt and Blaine to come into her office where she asked if the glee club would be interested in helping her at the homeless shelter.  The holidays remind her of the sister who passed away last year and Sue wants to keep busy so she doesn't think about how much she misses her.  The guys all agree that the glee club will help out.  Unfortunately, they all soon forget about their commitment with Sue when Mr. Schuester comes into the choir room announcing that the local PBS station wants them to do a televised Christmas special.  The kids are all ecstatic, and since Artie did such a great job directing the school's musical, he's the one chosen to direct the special.  (Just a side note, but the actual episode was directed by none other than Schuester actor Matthew Morrison.)

Aside from preparing songs for their second TV debut (let's not forget their mattress commercial in the first season), gift-giving also needs some attention.  Rachel has given Finn a detailed list of what she wants for Christmas, but the good-intentioned but often dim-witted Finn decides to deviate from that list.  He buys her some sort of pig that will feed a starving African village.  Very charitable, but not exactly the diamond earrings Rachel had in mind.  And speaking of people in faraway lands, Rory misses home and wishes that his family could afford to visit him from Ireland.  Sam understands him, seeing as his family is away in Kentucky, and the two become friends.

The Christmas special airs and it's a delightful throwback to 60s black-and-white television, complete with a sleek mid-century chalet as the setting where the very dapper Kurt and Blaine host some of their friends around the piano.  Another handful of songs are sung and some references to Star Wars are thrown in just for kicks.  Artie really is just a nerd at heart.  The special is supposed to end with Rory retelling the story of Frosty the Snowman, but instead he improvises and tells the biblical story of Christ's birth.  The kids are touched, and they all head over to the homeless shelter to help out Sue and sing one last rousing number, tugging at our heartstrings like only Glee can.

The Pros:

• Who doesn't like Christmas songs?  Even the Jewish characters do!  Tonight's episode was filled with some very fun songs, my favorites including Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You," a Kurt and Blaine duet of "Let It Snow" (reminiscent of last Christmas' "Baby It's Cold Outside"), "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music (although hardly a Christmas song), and the 1984 Band Aid charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?"  That last one will make you cry, unless your heart is two sizes too small...
• Also cool about "Do They Know It's Christmas?" is that all proceeds from the Glee cast version will be donated to the Band Aid Charitable Trust.
• The song "Extraordinary Merry Christmas" that the episode is named after is a Glee original!  Pretty cool, huh?  It was written by their executive music producer Adam Anders.
• Sue saying,  "I made plans to shoot reindeer out of a helicopter with Sarah Palin, but she cancelled."  That woman cracks me up!
• CHEWBACCA!  Ha ha!  Apparently they had to get special permission from George Lucas and use the only actor allowed to play Chewbacca.
• Artie:  "The phrase is 'Merry Christmas' not 'Morose Christmas.'"  That's right people, only happy songs!
• Kurt's introduction of Blaine as his "best friend and holiday roommate" was pretty funny.  I really thought those two were adorable all dressed in their retro tuxes.  I also have a soft spot for black-and-white, so the show-within-a-show was really my favorite part of the episode.
• I loved that Rachel named a pig after Barbra Streisand!  Ha ha!

The Cons:

• Even for Glee standards, Damian McGinty who plays Rory is not the greatest actor in the world.  And although I enjoy his voice, they haven't given him a song yet that really wows me.  At least he's not wearing green all the time anymore.
• I could have done without the Cheerios and their ribbon-dancing.  I'm not even a fan of that Waitress song "Christmas Wrapping" that they danced to...
• No more Glee for a while... the show is going on Christmas break.

The Gleek Critique: "Hold On to Sixteen"

New Directions performing a trio of Jackson songs at Sectionals.  Image property of Fox.

by Jack Garcia

Finn realizes that New Directions doesn't have a chance at winning Sectionals.  His brilliant solution to this problem?  Hunt Sam Evans down and convince him to transfer back to McKinley!  It doesn't even matter that he's moved completely out of the state!  So he and Rachel convince Sam to come back (which means the real-life actor has decided to return to the show) and his parents agree.  For some reason.

Quinn continues on her psychotic mission to regain custody of her daughter.  The info Puck shared with her about he and Shelby's coitus is proving very useful.  If she can get Shelby fired, she'll be seen as an "unfit mother."  She's also trying to get back with Sam, which isn't working because he is determined to get back with Mercedes.

Sebastian shows up to flirt with Blaine again and he makes it very known to Kurt that he doesn't like him.  It's okay though, because Kurt doesn't like Sebastian either.  But they both like Blaine... and the game is on.  Not everybody likes Blaine though.  Finn seems to hate him, but when Blaine confronts him about it, he admits that he is really just jealous.  The two make amends and everything is good in the hood.

Mike's dad is still very opposed to his son pursuing a career in the arts, so Mike decides to apply for Stanford to make him happy.  But with a little coercion from Tina, Mike's father comes to Sectionals and is moved by his son's performance... causing a heartwarming (or gag-worthy?) change of heart.  And Mike's dad isn't the only one who loved New Directions.  The judges were impressed as well and they win the competition!

The Pros:

• Sam is back tonight!  And he came back naked!!  That's right.  Naked.  Well, almost naked.  He's been working as a male stripper...
• The sexiness continues when Blaine is seen boxing!
• "Buenos Aires" from the musical Evita was really fun!  That Glee Project winner is really good.  I liked the song she did in the first episode as well.
• I liked Shelby's advice to Quinn... and thank goodness it seems like she is actually following it!
• The Troubletones can do no wrong!  Their mash-up of "Survivor/I Will Survive" at Sectionals was fantastic!  Seriously, Mercedes and Santana should sing together all the time.  Over and over.
• The Asians got solos at Sectionals!  Ignoring how racist I just sounded, Tina never gets solos anymore so I was thrilled that she was featured as was Mike Chang.  Doing the Jackson Five's "ABC" followed by Janet Jackson's "Control" and Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" was a tremendous tour de force and I ate it all up!  Seriously, New Directions kicked butt tonight!
• Speaking of the New Directions, I love how they solved their low numbers by recruiting the random band kids that accompany them in the choir room.
• Their last song "We Are Young" made me happy inside... mostly because all of the kids were together again!

The Cons:

• A clown is judging Sectionals?
• Again... a clown? 
• Sue isn't to be seen... but we get a clown.

Movie Reviews: Happy Hugo and the Christmas Muppets

by Jack Garcia

So these are the first reviews I am writing after quitting the movie theater.  It’s very weird to no longer be a Cinemark employee.  Part of me misses it… maybe even a lot… but I am thoroughly enjoying my new paychecks!!  Two of these movies I saw with a friend who still works there (so they were free), but the other two I had to pay for.  Actually, scratch that.  Make that one.  I saw Hugo with family so that ticket price came out of somebody else’s pocket!

Anyway, the following movies are all family movies… one I absolutely LOVED!

Happy Feet Two ADMIRABLE

I don’t know what it is about these movies, but they make me happy inside.  I mean, there are cute penguins that sing and dance!  In the sequel to 2006’s Happy Feet, Mumble’s son Erik (voiced by a girl named Ava Acres) is struggling to find his own talent.  Will he be a dancer like his dad?  Or will he be a singer?  And while he’s trying to find his place in the world, he meets a penguin who can fly, giving him something more to aspire to.  Things get a little crazy though when an iceberg threatens to destroy their home.  All the penguins—including their human, krill and walrus friends—must work together to restore order.

The animation is top-notch and breathtaking at times.  The voices by Elijah Wood, Pink, Robin Williams, Sofia Vergara  and other stars were all very good, and I really liked some of the songs Pink sang.  Gosh, she has a great voice!  My favorite two characters though were the non-singing Bill and Will (Matt Damon and Brad Pitt), two tiny krill who were determined to change their destinies.  Their journey is an interesting one—one I found to be very poignant—and it’s the unconventional things like this that make me appreciate the Happy Feet movies.

That, and the singing.  Gotta love the singing.  This one even had some yodeling and opera thrown into the mix!

Hugo AWESOME!

This movie is definitely making it to my soon-to-come “fave fifteen” list of 2011.  I loved it!  Directed by Martin Scorsese and based off the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, Hugo is a fantastic family film that is beautifully cinematic, magical, charming and profoundly moving.  The story is of a young orphan named Hugo (Asa Butterfield) who lives in a train station in 1930s Paris.  His job is to keep the clocks running, but in his spare time he tinkers with an abandoned automaton his father found before he died.  When he meets Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz)—who happens to have the missing key he needs for the robot—the two begin to uncover some secrets of the past revolving around the girl’s godfather Georges Méliès (Ben Kingsley).

And while it doesn’t sound like it from the plot description, the movie is a plea for film preservation and the perfect way to introduce today’s kids to the wonder of early cinema.  It’s also the story of a boy struggling to understand why he’s alone in the world and an old man wondering whatever happened to his life…  One of my favorite moments is when Hugo explains to Isabelle that he sees the world as one big machine.  “Machines never come with any extra parts,” he says.  “They always come with the exact amount they need.  So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn't be an extra part.  I had to be here for some reason.”

Arthur Christmas ADMIRABLE

Starring James McAvoy as the voice of the titular Arthur, this movie was a heck of a lot of fun and the final message was very well-received.  Arthur is the son of Santa (Jim Broadbent)—yes, the Santa—and he lives at the North Pole along with his mother (Imelda Staunton), brother Steve (Hugh Laurie) and crazy Grandsanta (Bill Nighy).  Steve is ambitiously revolutionizing the toy delivering system with state-of-the-art electronic gadgets and a well-trained crew of elves.  He hopes his father will retire soon and pass on the job to him, but when a tiny glitch causes just one little girl to be forgotten, it’s up to Arthur, Grandsanta and an elf named Bryony (Ashley Jensen) to save the day.

The character of Grandsanta is a hoot to watch and McAvoy infuses Arthur with a wonderful naiveté and earnestness.  The movie teaches us that it doesn’t matter how the presents get under the tree, just as long as no child is forgotten.  It also deals with family relationships among three generations of men and the trouble with passing the old over in favor of the new.

The Muppets AVERAGE

I was hoping to like this movie more than I did, but it was still pretty fun to watch and a welcome treat to have the Muppets back on the big screen again after 12 years.  The story is of a young puppet-boy named Walter (Peter Linz) who grew up feeling very different from his human brother Gary (Jason Segel) in their small town.  But when he discovered old episodes of The Muppet Show from the 70s, he felt like he connected with them.  Gary invites Walter to tag along on a trip to Hollywood he and his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) have been planning.   There they discover that an evil oil tycoon (Chris Cooper) is threatening to destroy the Muppet theater unless they can come up with enough money to save it.  The three embark on a mission to reunite all the Muppet characters including Kermit, Fozzie Bear and Miss Piggy to put on a telethon, save the theater and become stars again.

The movie began on a very high note for me, with lots of silly over-the-top musical numbers and plenty of laughs, but then dragged in the middle (oddly enough when the Muppets came in).  There are many celebrity cameos and a strong sense of nostalgia, but overall the movie seemed to be lacking something.  Perhaps it was due to the fact that this is the first theatrical movie to not have the voice of Frank Oz, so some of the characters—Miss Piggy especially—sounded a bit off.