I’ve seen A Bad Moms Christmas before, but I enjoyed it, and wanted to watch it again!

This is the second film in the Bad Moms series, and I just love all of the characters, and how they struggle together to find themselves rather than doing what society tells them they should be doing.

In this instalment, our bad Moms are being visited by their Moms, just in time for Christmas!  And you can see where they each get their habits from!  Which is exactly what you need at such a high pressure time as Christmas!

I enjoyed the film, even if I was cringing at some points (I’ve not managed to get through Bridesmaids), but otherwise I found it hilarious!

And that’s it! My last Christmas film!  This has been an interesting experience watching all of these films and writing about them, and I’m in the process of writing a post about it, so stay tuned!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this!  Any suggestions for films to watch next year?

My rating: ???

I hadn’t heard anything about Christmas Break-in, but I spotted it on Netflix, and when I saw it had Danny Glover in it, I was sold!

Izzy is 9 years old, and her parents are a little distracted when trying to remember things for her, such as 3 dance recitals they missed.  Her elder brother tries to step in to help out, and is also exasperated at their parents uselessness.  Izzy has a way of reminding them about things which involves writing on them in permanent marker.

It’s the last day of school before Christmas, and Izzy’s guitar teacher / janitor (yes, Danny Glover!) feels like the only other person who cares about Izzy other than her brother.  

Into the mix, we have 3 robbers who have stolen coins from the Salvation Army store the night before.  

It’s very much like Home Alone!  There’s hijinks, and slapstick comedy.  It’s a family film, and was entertaining and cheesy, complete with Nick, a delivery driver for North Pole deliveries.  

My rating: ?????

How The Grinch Stole Christmas starring Jim Carrey is a film that I’ve loved for I don’t remember how many years!

The Grinch lives near Whoville, where everyone loves Christmas maybe a little too much!  The Grinch hates Christmas, and hates Who’s.  Some of them share his dislike, and others are scared of the rumours about his.

A little girl starts doubting the meaning of Christmas, is the one who wants to know more about the Grinch, and so starts a chain of circumstances that brings about the Grinch stealing Christmas.

I like the mix of the cartoon with the reality, such as the hole that Max makes when thrown into the snow.  I enjoy Jim Carrey’s humour in the film, and his physicality.

I enjoy the social commentary that there is throughout the film – that people think Christmas is only about presents, and are obsessed with outdoing each other.  This is a film that presents things in a different way, and I enjoyed all of it!

Elf is a film that a lot of people really enjoy, and has generated so many memes!

Buddy is a human who crawls into Santa’s sack as a baby, gets taken back to the North Pole by mistake, and adopted by an elf.  No one has the heart to tell him he’s a human for a long time.

When he overhears that he’s a human, and goes to his father, he’s told his story, and his father tells him when he can find his biological father.  Which is why Buddy ends up going to New York.

His childlike innocence, love of sugar, and all round enthusiasm make a hilarious mix.

It’s a fun mix of fantasy, stop motion animation, and a lot of enthusiasm and cynicism, and whilst not a film I’ll watch every Christmas, it is one that I enjoy when it’s on!

My rating: ????

Ah, it’s time for The Holiday!  

This was another re-watch because I enjoy the film!  Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz swapping homes for Christmas whilst both try to get over guys is a film that probably wouldn’t be made these days, as pointed out by my husband!  

They are getting over guys, and meeting new ones.  So quite a male centric film, which I didn’t spot until he pointed it out to me.  I think writing these blog posts has made me more analytical in that way, but I’m still not sure I would have noticed that!

Any way, I enjoy the film, and the differences in the houses, even if the “English cottage” has an American cooker, and of course an American stove top kettle (those are the things I notice in films…)

I think it’s a light hearted romance, where you are cheering the women on in getting over their heart breaks, and wanting more for them.  

There’s not many days left in December, and so I’m picking films I want to watch, and might mix in some that I’ve not seen before!  You’ll have to wait and see what else I’m watching!

Ah, Die Hard!  It’s a film that it became fun to say was a festive film, and it’s especially funny as it’s true!  It’s also a change from all of the other Christmas films in that there is a whole bunch more death in this film than in any of the others I’ve reviewed for this Christmas!

Why do I think this is a festive film?  It has the angst of parents trying to do the best for their kids, especially when they live apart.  It has a Christmas party, with people doing things they really should know better than to do.  It has the amazing sweatshirt saying: 
‘Now I have a machine gun 
Ho-Ho-Ho ‘
which you can buy on Amazon, Etsy and probably lots of other places!  I’m pretty should that all together, that makes it a Christmas film!

I saw a version of this tweet for the first time this Christmas Eve, and it really made me laugh:

It’s time for an old favourite: The Santa Clause!

If you haven’t seen the film, Tim Allen plays Scott Calvin, an executive at a toy making company, who is to have his son (Charlie) for Christmas Eve.

Charlie is at the age where he no longer believes in Santa, and Scott, finding this upsetting, tells Charlie that he still believes.  Scott’s ex wife, Laura, and her new husband Neal (a psychiatrist) find this alarming.

Scott and Charlie have an adventure that night, with Scott putting on Santa’s suit, and delivering presents, ending up at the North Pole, where Scott gets told he has entered into a contract by putting on the suit, and so has 11 months to get his life in order before he’s due back at the North Pole!

The friction of divorced parents trying to work out the best for their child is throughout this film, and the difficulties of Scott and Neal’s relationship.  I think this helps the film by showing the hard times along with the good.

I love this film – it has magic, Santa, and sparkly lights!  Yes, it’s showing it’s age in places, but it’s still a film I enjoy and want to go back to every year!

The Christmas Chronicles is another Netflix original, and has a brother and sister who are grieving for their father, and getting through their first Christmas without him.  Their mother works in a hospital, and so on Christmas Eve is called to work.

The siblings end up waiting up for Santa, complete with camcorder, and the hijinks that ensue is what makes up the rest of the film.

It’s another film of lessons, but I love the different take on Santa (complete with complaints about how the media portrays him as fat), and with the quotes of Christmas songs (‘are you listening’ said in a menacing tone!), I enjoyed it!

It has the right amount of entertainment for children, and humour for adults, so one everyone can enjoy!

Christmas Chronicles 2 is due out next year (2020) with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell again!  Hurrah!

My rating: ?????

Klaus is an original film from Netflix that came out for Christmas 2019.  It’s animated, and has a lovely style!

It tells the story of how Santa Claus came to begin.  We have a lazy postman, Jesper, who is sent to a small island, which is the furtherest outpost with a ridiculous number of letters he needs to get before he’s allowed home by his father, the Post Master General!  

Sadly for Jesper, he’s managed to come into the middle of all out war by the people of this island, and they can express themselves very well without letters!

Jesper needs to find a reason for these people to want to send letters, otherwise he’s going to be stuck there forever!

There’s a trigger warning for this film, which is it deals with infertility.  

I found this film to be touching, and sweet, with beautiful animation, a little fantasy, and a lot of Santa! I loved it!