This Week in Cinema, I Learned…Dec 1-7 2024
Written by Cameron Geiser
Welcome to This Week in Cinema, a yearlong film criticism project wherein I will be watching a new film that I haven't seen every single day.
With the exception of the Jack Black starring film, Dear Santa, this week was a charming (if somewhat middling) beginning to the final month of my year in watching a film every single day. If it wasn’t immediately obvious, the last theme of the year is Christmas movies. This last series of articles is arriving quite late, I must acknowledge. Life has been turbulent in the new year that is 2025. I had hoped to get these articles out in January at the latest, but here we are. So, if you needed a distraction from the world as it is now, a random slew of Christmas movies should suffice!
This first week’s Holiday films were all generically entertaining, however, I did not realize until well into Gremlins 2: The New Batch that just because the first film had a Christmas theme and was generally considered to be a remake of the first film, did not mean that the sequel had anything to do with Christmas at all. You learn something new every day, whether you want to or not. In fact, besides the Gremlins sequel, the remainder of this week's films were all 2000’s or newer, with 2006’s Deck The Halls being the oldest of that bunch. Most are newer films I had heard of but never took the time to seek out, and now I have. Maybe you’ll find a new one to add to the Holiday round-up next year.
December 1st
Dear Santa (2024)
1/5
This may be the worst film I saw all year. There were probably technically worse films that I saw, but I could almost always see something of value in the spirit of the filmmaking. For example, Surf Ninjas, The Longest Yard (1974), Cadillac Man, or even Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles- these films all at least tried in some way shape or form to make a good movie. They failed in my eyes, but at least someone involved cared enough to put forth some effort. Dear Santa fails because of sub-par filmmaking, terrible child acting, but most of all because it wastes a near perfect premise with a good actor attached. The idea at hand is that a kid writes a letter to Santa, but he’s a terrible speller and addresses his letter to Satan instead. Satan here is portrayed by Jack Black. Great idea. Too bad the writing and directing is also abysmal, cheap, and manipulative in the third act. They also don’t even commit to their idea as the last minutes of the film reveal that Jack Black’s character was only impersonating Satan, and thus just a lowly power hungry devil instead. I’m not usually this harsh, but I cannot recommend this movie at all. Avoid it, it’s just a waste of your time- it certainly was for me.
December 2nd
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
3.5/5
Going into this movie, I only had vague memories of Gremlins being a Christmas horror-comedy and that the new film was essentially a remake, even though director Joe Dante reportedly wanted nothing to do with the idea- so he just decided to have fun with it and mock movie-going culture too while he was at it. Well, even though I quite enjoyed this bonkers absurdist and anarchic sequel, it wasn’t until about halfway through the movie that I realized that Christmas hadn’t been brought up once. Oooohhh, so it wasn’t a one-to-one remake. Well, in any case while the plotting and story was a little weak, the zany energy of the cartoonish Gremlins was an entertaining romp. Especially with all of the old school practical effects. This time around the little bastards erupt into New York City and take over a Skyscraper while Joe Dante riffs on pop culture and society as a whole. It’s a lot of fun.
December 3rd
Spirited (2022)
3.5/5
As yet another take on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, I fully expected Spirited to be either massively cringe or just dull, but I surprisingly really enjoyed this modern Musical take on the classic Holiday story. Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds play to their respective strengths as the overly excitable and cheery Holiday do-gooder and the sarcasm laden with dry quips grump respectively. The hook for this iteration of Scrooge’s story is that a powerful Christmas organization runs intricate simulations every year that attempt to “haunt” your average Scrooge into being a good person. There’s a lot of work and research that goes into every year’s attempt to change a person’s heart, and I was pleasantly surprised that this had a little more going on than expected story-wise. However the most impressive feat was the traditional Musical aspects of excellent choreography and blocking with regard to the dance sequences. This was an entertaining one that may end up in my rotation depending on how ‘Scroogey’ I may or may not be feeling next season. It’s hard to top Bill Murray’s Scrooged for a modern take on the idea though in my opinion.
December 4th
Silent Night (2023)
3/5
I would probably be more impressed with Silent Night if I hadn’t made an attempt to watch a number of John Woo’s older films earlier in 2024. The film isn’t bad, it’s just generic. John Woo has done better before within this genre, much better. However, there are a few neat tricks to Silent Night, namely the fact that with the exception of a few lines of dialogue coming from radio chatter, this is a Silent Action film. One Christmas Eve Joel Kinnaman finds himself involved in a shootout and takes a bullet to the throat, rendering him mute. Fast forward one year to the next Christmas Eve and our protagonist finds himself closing in on revenge. There are some neat urban Mad Max style visuals at times, and the Action itself is serviceable, but it’s all been seen and done better before, especially by Woo himself. In fact, I have to recommend giving his earlier film Hard Boiled a watch over this, it’s outstanding. If you’re wanting to just watch your average Action movie with a tinge of Christmas surrounding it, this will do.
December 5th
The Christmas Chronicles (2018)
3/5
I had heard a few years ago that this one was a fun new addition to the Christmas canon, so it was added to the list. The Christmas Chronicles is a perfectly “fine” new take on the Santa Claus mythos, but this is due in large part to Kurt Russell’s commitment to his brand of Kris Kringle. He is the MVP of the film, and there are a few fun ideas dealing with the rules of his magic that are entertaining enough, but your true enjoyment of the film will mostly depend on how much you enjoy Kurt Russell’s grumpy but fair Father Christmas. The writing is a little hokey and emotionally manipulative at times, but hey, there’s a Bluesy musical number at one point that won me back. This is yet another totally “fine” Christmas film.
December 6th
Deck The Halls (2006)
3/5
Deck The Halls is one of those Holiday comedies that feels like a throwback while simultaneously attempting to be “modern” for its time. The filmmaking and lighting is flat and what a sneering, callous, cinephile might describe as “pedestrian”, but that’s not why you watch Christmas movies in my opinion. You watch them for whatever comfort they might give you during the most stressful time of year for many. For me it’s in the casting of Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick as two middle-aged fathers that become new neighbors that initially attempt to stay neutral at best despite the massive income gulf between them. Obviously this doesn’t work out when Broderick’s obsessive and uptight control freak tendencies get in the way of DeVito’s crass, blunt, and wild antics. You see, Christmas is Broderick’s character’s “thing”. He’s the Christmas “expert” in town, on the board of the holiday’s local events, and desperately needs to craft and adhere to the Holiday traditions he never had as a child. However, DeVito’s character is a perpetually down-on-his luck car salesman trying to do right by his family when he discovers that being “The Christmas Guy” could be his new road to success with his family and the community. Thus each one tries desperately to “out Christmas” each other which escalates constantly until they ultimately decide to work together in the end. Is it extremely predictable? Yeah, but it’s a good time and one I’ll probably keep in the rotation going forward.
December 7th
Daddy’s Home 2 (2017)
3/5
Since I didn’t exactly love the first Daddy’s Home, I was hesitant going into the Holiday themed sequel. This time around Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg’s characters, Brad and Dusty respectively, are co-parenting Brad’s children while they’re deciding what to do for Christmas. Things get turned upside down when both of their fathers intrude on their plans and things get messy. Brad’s father is played by John Lithgow in a hilariously over-the-top touchy feely, kiss on the mouth sort of performance. Dusty’s father is played by Mel Gibson in an equally entertaining stereotype of an overly masculine alcoholic womanizer. John Lithgow and Mel Gibson are easily the MVPs of this comedy sequel and they raise the bar significantly higher than the first film. Is it still rather dumb and bland when it comes to the actual filmmaking? Yes, of course. But the jokes land better for the most part and the inclusion of two much better actors seems to have made everyone else step up their game a bit. It’s a moderately entertaining Christmas movie, though I’m not sure if I’ll add it to the rotation. It's not exactly my cup of tea, but it’s alright.
Cameron Geiser is an avid consumer of films and books about filmmakers. He'll watch any film at least once, and can usually be spotted at the annual Traverse City Film Festival in Northern Michigan. He also writes about film over at www.spacecortezwrites.com.