It’s December 25th, and the big guns are upon us — the movies expected to pull the biggest crowds, garner the highest accolades, break box-office records.
But are they any good? Well …
47 Ronin: Universal didn’t screen its Keanu Reeves action fantasy for the press, which is a serious red flag at this time of year. But who knows, right? [UPDATE: It’s awful.]
Grudge Match: Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone send themselves up as aging pugilists tempted into one last fight by the Internet, And yes, this was exactly the plot of Rocky Balboa. Rad didn’t have much time for it.
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom: Justin Chadwick’s facile biopic wastes what might have been fine performances from Idris Elba and Naomie Harris in a sort of flipbook version of the South African leader’s life. (Seriously, no scene is more than two and a half minutes long.) Susan liked it a little more than I did, but not that much.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty: Ben Stiller makes his most ambitious film to date — a great big open-hearted dramedy about the value of analog things in a digital culture — and if it doesn’t totally work, I have to say I respect the effort.
The Wolf of Wall Street: If you’ve ever wondered whether Martin Scorsese misses his coke days, this movie has the answer, whis is apparently “Christ, yes.”
There you go! Enjoy your holidays, please drive carefully, and if you haven’t seen Philomena yet you could certainly do worse.
Any thoughts on the Doctor Who Christmas episode/Matt Smith finale? Or was that what your tweet “Well that was bollocks,” about? If it was, I’m with you! There have been much better Christmas episodes and much better regenerations. Fingers crossed for the Capaldi era.
Yeah, I wasn’t crazy about it. Moffat is at his worst when he digs into the mythology, and that’s all he’s been doing for the last few episodes — and any time he trots out the Weeping Angels I know he’s scraping the bottom of the barrel.
The idea of The Doctor sitting around waiting for new threats to arise, making connections with the people around him out of sheer boredom, is wonderful. But the episode barely even engages with it. I really hope Capaldi gooses the show back to proper life next year.