“Surviving Christmas”

With the Christmas season beginning earlier and earlier each
year, we can now expect to see Christmas decorations alongside
Halloween costumes. Pretty soon, we will be seeing Christmas lights
on sale on July 5. While many could expect Christmas to begin in
force the day after Thanksgiving, we now have a Christmas movie
coming out a full two months before the holiday.

Ad executive Drew Latham (Ben Affleck) leads a wealthy but empty
life, especially around the holidays. After his girlfriend rejects
a Christmas vacation in the Caribbean, Drew goes back to his
childhood home to reconcile with his childhood memories. Once
there, he finds the working class Valco family (including James
Gandolfini and Catherine O’Hara) in his old home. Wanting to
relive an old-fashioned Christmas, Drew pays the Valcos $250,000 to
rent a room for Christmas. As Drew slowly drives the family crazy
with his demands, the return of the Valco’s daughter, Alicia
(Christina Applegate), further complicates an already strained
situation.

If the plot sounds like it comes from a television sitcom, then
you have the idea. The movie is almost exactly like a TV comedy,
with Drew constantly pressuring the Valco’s into acting out
his ideal Christmas. While the comedy relies on contrived
situations, the film does provide a few good laugh-out-loud moments
and a couple of other good jokes.

There are times when the movie feels rushed, with it skipping
over some good ideas and skimping on character development. The
four writers for the movie introduce the characters without the
audience ever finding out that much about them, and it is a
testament to the actors for giving them depth, thus making this
problem a minor inconvenience.

The film really belongs to the supporting characters. Both
Gandolfini and O’Hara as Tom and Christine, respectively, are
good as the put-upon couple whose already strained marriage is
exasperated by their tenet “son.”

While “Surviving Christmas” is enjoyable for the
most part, there are two problems that keep it from being a very
good holiday movie. One is Ben Affleck. He does not act so much as
he mugs for the camera, smiling almost psychotically as puts his
rented family through a Yuletide hell. While he tries to balance
being exceedingly annoying with having a troubled past, he is too
much of a jerk to make his redemption at the film’s end to be
all that powerful.

The second problem with the movie is that it is being released
in October. It is hard to relate with the characters in their
holiday situation when Monsterfest is playing on AMC. Watching
“Surviving Christmas” at this time of year is like
watching the classic “A Christmas Story” now. It just
does not work the same way that it would in December. If it is
still around for Thanksgiving, though, it will definitely be worth
a look for the upcoming Christmas season.

 

“The Grudge”

After years of slasher films and masked killers, movie watchers
in the United States had grown bored and used to cheap jump scares
and buckets of gore. So when Japanese horror films, which emphasize
mood and high tensions, began to be imported and remade, American
audiences were totally caught off guard. Like the native population
that is not immune to the diseases of foreign invaders, we were
unprepared for the type of horror filmmaking they contained.

Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is an American nurse living in
Japan. When she takes the charge of a sickly old woman, she moves
into the woman’s creepy house, where she sees the ghostly
apparitions of a woman and a silent boy. She soon learns about the
house’s mysterious curse that locks a person into a powerful
rage before killing them and moving on to the next victim.

The plot in this genre of movies is marginal, with the
film’s real effectiveness coming from the director building
tension and mood. Producer Sam Raimi (director of the “Evil
Dead” trilogy) has brought the original Japanese director
Takashi Shimizu to helm the American remake. Other participants
from the original, including the actors who play the haunting
ghosts, also cross the pond for the movie.

The filmmakers have tried to recreate the same atmosphere as the
original, bringing in the same director and setting it in Japan.
While some hardcore fans have decried another remake, there is some
hype that “The Grudge” is better than “The
Ring” and even the original Japanese version.

Those who have seen the trailer already know the freaky images
that will be in the film. From the jerky camera movement to the
haunted house atmosphere and sudden, startling appearances, this
movie will try to recreate the original’s visual style. While
the American version does contain computer effects that were not in
the original, the director will probably use these to further
recreate the horrifying atmosphere.

Many people will be wanting to see a scary horror movie this
weekend and this is definitely the more season-appropriate film,
moreso than the other film released this weekend. Whether you can
stand Japanese horror or not, “The Grudge” will provide
a scare for even the most stalwart horror buffs.
hello there & you too