Festicember 2020 Entry #36

Following up from "Arthur Christmas", here's another movie with the exact same problem: what the hell do you say about "A Christmas Story"? In a stark parallel to "A Charlie Brown Christmas", this is one of the most earnest, unassuming, genuine pieces of art ever created, which has been so greedily exploited and abused, as well as hyped beyond any realistic standard, so as to begin obfuscating the simplistic genius of the original film.

What struck…

Festicember 2020 Entry #33!

It almost feels like heresy to say "I haven't seen 'Elf'", like I'll be publicly stoned with candy corn until I remedy my transgressions. Well, now I have, and I can say it's pretty good. There's nothing spectacularly deep going on here, nor is it a stellar, flawless comedy, but there's enough creative concepts, funny gags, and solid performances stacked on a really rock solid premise to make it an easy, enjoyable watch.

I have to…

Festicember 2020, Entry #14.

Step aside, Christmas, this is Hanukkah's time! If only it had a better film to reflect it than... whatever this is.

Honestly, this deserves better than it gets. That's not to say it's good, it's not at all, but it's also not unwatchable. In fact, I think you could probably cut this down to a pretty decent 40 minute comedy. Unfortunately, it's laden with enough whorish product placement, awful toilet humor, in-your-face obnoxiousness, and excessive mean-spiritedness…