Luis Gerardo Mendez and Connor Del Rio star in this Mexico themed mashup of Step Brothers meets Midnight Run.
See it in theaters now. Attendance has doubled... from 2 people to 4 in the theater.
* * * *
Die Hard (1988)
"Is this a Christmas movie?" One of the great film school questions.
Yes - it is set on Christmas Eve, there's a family potentially getting together, there's a Christmas party, Christmas music plays over the closing credits.
No - there's no greater theme of gifts, there's not much love to go around, no one really laments that they are about to die hard on Christmas Eve all alone, it could be any other of the 364 nights of the year.
Bruce Willis is John McLane, a New York City detective, on vacation in Los Angeles. He's visiting his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) who has a good job with Nakatomi Industries and he attends their Christmas party on Christmas Eve. But when German robbers led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) take over the building to rob it, John becomes a one-man army and the movie turns into a cat and mouse game on who can beat the other first. The lead police office Sgt. Powell (Reginald VelJohnson) provides a nice best friend aspect.
This really set the playbook for the modern action movie: a wisecracking one man army, guns, fist fighting, acrobatics, death defying stunts, car crashes, explosions behind the running man, etc.
* * * * of 5
The Kid Detective (2020)
One of the few movies to open this year, its a Stranger Things look at an unsolved crime in a northern town. Adam Brodie stars as the "Encyclopedia Brown" all grown up. A lot of classic detective movie gags here, but it does have a few mystery twists. Sophie Nelisse plays a good sidekick.
* * * of 5
Gremlins (1985)
Produced by Steven Spielberg, it's got that familiar 80s set design of a dark, suburban maze (Goonies, ET) and a cast of kids dealing with the supernatural. Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates stars as two teenagers who find themselves dealing with a good gremlin named Gizmo which has spawned bad gremlins (e.g. Aliens) who are outlandish villains in the otherwise idyllic Kingston Falls.
Set at Christmas with the gremlin to be a Christmas present, it's kind of a movie with in a movie with various Christmas movies playing in the background.
Written by Christmas movie favorite Chris Columbus. Stay for the good ending.
**** of 5
Jingle All the Way (1996)
Arnold Schwarzeneggar plays Howard, an overworked dad, who waits until Christmas Eve to find the most popular toy for his neglected son.
The toy Turbo Man is of course sold out and Howard in his quest runs into Myron (Sinbad) and they competitively try and find the last one in town. Their quest takes them through the Mall of America, Santa's warehouse and culminates in the big downtown parade through Minneapolis.
A nice combo between an action movie, a family movie and cartoon. The Turbo Man plot is very well done. Produced by family movie extraordinaire, Chris Columbus. Also starring Rita Moreno and Phil Hartman.
* * * * * Merry Christmas!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)