F'tm'n

It's an earnest Christmas movie. However...

Chris Cringle and his wife Ruth are trying hard to make ends meet, and the annual gig just isn't as profitable as it used to be. So they have to take on an extra contract to help make ends meet. In a completely separate story, a young punk of a spoiled rich kid doesn't like his gift from Santa and so calls out a hit on him, and we see the assassin slowly track down the location of the giver. And then at the, you will believe that the two plots collide.

Let's talk about the reindeer in the room. Yes, Mel Gibson is in this, and he gives an all right performance. So your willingness to put up with him will impact on how you accept this film. On the other hand, Walter Goggins gives a great performance and is the best thing in any scene he is in.

The problem with this movie is that it is very earnest... about being earnest. Aside from that, I'm not sure what the heck this movie was going for. The Chris plot was barely an arc, and the assassin bit was completely unrelated, so yeah... what was the point of this again?

Not a terrible movie, but not one that is going to stick in the memory either.

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Gloneland

Yeah, okay, let's see this take on 2012.

A comet... maybe? It's a bad scientific phenomena they can't quite identity... is heading by Earth, only everyone is so mathematically incompetent they can't tell that the fragments are instead going to slam into the planet. And so in one night we have a small family trying to get to a shelter, and undergoing many stupid and pointless adventures as the point of the movie seems to be "civilisation is one hour away from going into chaos".

As you might be able to tell, I wasn't that impressed. This is better than 2014 in that there is at least some justification for why Gerald Butler and co might actually be involved in the end of the world, but otherwise this just feels like "how many horrible/stupid things can we have our stars deal with?" while still trying to fit it into one night. I don't know geography, but it feels like they are able to cover vast swaths of land in just an hour or so.

Oh, and there's a comet. Which feels very much an excuse for a) panic and b) for things to blow up. While listening to Plot Exposition Radio, they make it clear that science doesn't actually know what this comet is, how the fragments are moving, nor what is going on because "it came from another solar system" or some such rubbish. Try hard not to think too deeply about it, because I suspect the writers/editors didn't.

Despite the years since things like 2012, this feels like generic disaster movie, with only slightly more focus on the characters over the special effects.

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They are Desert Bus

When you read this, the latest run of Desert Bus will have started. But if you can't watch that, you can watch this documentary on it!

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