Christmas Cast-a-Thon - Allie's Post

You know, whilst I was dreaming up the post for our Christmas Cast-a-Thon, I actually had no idea what kind of cast I was going to create, or what kind of movie it would end up being. I was more excited to see everyone else’s posts! But it would certainly be rude to not take part in your own blogathon! So here’s what I’ve come up with.

If you'd like to take part, check out the announcement post here.

Christmas is the perfect time to watch cheesy movies without feeling guilty, so that’s exactly what I’m making here. I’m going for typical rom com with a Christmas flavour!

Santa - Benji, Mission Impossible Series (Simon Pegg)

Let’s say the IMF were shut down. When your entire career is a secret, your CV isn’t going to look that great, and so poor Benji is forced to work at a toy megastore as Santa over the Christmas holidays just to pay the rent.

Santa’s Helpers - Olive, Easy A (Emma Stone) & Winston, New Girl (Lamorne Morris)

Just because their job title is ‘Helper’ doesn’t mean they’re actually helpful! Olive is providing all the laughs here with her dry, sarcastic. humour, at the expense of everyone around her. Winston is looking for some extra cash on the side of his cop job, but he’s also Santa’s perfect wingman in his search for true love. Speaking of which…

Parents - Sabrina, The Change-Up (Olivia Wilde) & Owen, Jurassic World (Chris Pratt)

Married life as a legal secretary and a velociraptor handler is busy, and stressful, and that’s what ultimately led to the divorce of Sabrina and Owen. Sob. Luckily, Sabrina’s best friend Olive just so happens to work very closely with an eligible bachelor. See where this is going?

Child - Alexander, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Ed Oxenbould)

Alexander is having another terrible day it seems. Not only have his parents just finalised their divorce, but he’s being dragged Christmas shopping with his Mum to meet up with his rude Aunt Olive who isn’t even his Aunt, and he’s reached that age where he’s 99.9% certain Santa isn’t real.

Scrooge/Grinch - Dwight, The Office (Rainn Wilson)

Let’s say Dunder Mifflin really did shut down in the end. Things were looking pretty bad, but now Dwight has secured a role as Assistant Store Manager (or should that be Assistant to the Store Manager?) at the city’s biggest toy store. Only thing is, he hates Christmas. The only thing he hates more than Christmas are the company’s new hires, Santa and his Helpers. They spend far too much work time chatting, and Dwight is going to make darn sure all three of them get fired.

Extra Roles:

Grandad - Bryan, The Taken Trilogy (Liam Neeson)

Let’s face it, if you’re going to end up dating the daughter of any Liam Neeson character, especially Bryan Mills, you best make sure you don’t hurt her feelings. Or he’ll find you. And kill you. Wait, no. This is a lighthearted movie! Cool it, Bryan!

Family Pet - Grumpy Cat, Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever (Aubrey Plaza)

I’m cheating a little here. Last week I discovered that this movie existed. I scoffed that Grumpy Cat has his (her??) own Christmas movie. Then I noticed Grumpy Cat is voiced by Aubrey Plaza. Never before have I bought a DVD so quickly! I haven’t watched this yet, but come on, what Christmas Movie is complete without a (dis)loyal family pet?

That’s it! Would you ever consider watching my stereotypical, predictable Christmas Movie? I would, and then I’d add it to my list of guilty pleasures. Can’t wait to see what everyone else comes up with!

Review: The Visit (2015)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I don’t do horror. But I am a downright sucker for a plot twist, mainly because I’m too oblivious to ever see it coming. However, knowing a movie has a plot twist always kicks your brain into overdrive, doesn’t it? Being told The Usual Suspects had an amazing plot twist ruined it for me a little, because for the first time ever I worked it out halfway through, and don’t even talk to me about The Sixth Sense!

So, all I can really tell you about The Visit is that it’s shot documentary/found footage style by brother and sister Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) when they go to stay with their grandparents (Deanna Dunagan & Peter McRobbie) for a week whilst their mother (Kathryn Hahn) is on a cruise with her boyfriend. That’s all I can say! Trust me, the less you know, the better.

Knowing how terrible I cope with horror movies, I tried to extensively research The Visit before deciding whether I could actually watch it or not. Most reviews I read were similar to this, and gave nothing away, which was of course no help in my quest. Then, I remembered the Parent’s Guide on IMDB. See, I can cope with gore and nasty images, but it’s the cheap thrills that absolutely kill me, so I was hoping IMDB’s guide would help me out with that. This is what I was greeted with:

Thanks, IMDB. At least it warned me of ‘various jumpscares’, my worst nightmare. But look at all those spoiler warnings! It was just too much for my curiosity threshold, so I put on my big girl pants and gave it a go. For the hardened viewers out there, you would probably rate this one as quite tame, but for me, I was nervous laughing to myself throughout, and found something very interesting to look at on the ceiling any time Becca and Tyler wanted to open the bedroom door after 9:30pm.

From what I’ve read, The Visit has really split opinions, with people either hating it or loving it, but I feel like I fit somewhere in the middle. The parts I could bring myself to watch, I enjoyed. I thought the kids did a great job, Ed Oxenbould in particular. I have a 13 year old brother myself and their personalities are a great match. I would image horror fans wanted more, but that would have been too much for me. I read that M. Night Shyamalan prepared 3 different cuts of this film, one pure comedy, one pure horror, and the final product, a mix of the two, and I think it works well. 

I wouldn’t class The Visit as a comedy, but there are enough laughs to break up the tension, which I needed!

Mini Reviews: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014), The Longest Week (2014) & Step Up All In (2014)

Every time I try to tell someone about this film or find it on IMDB, I have to go via actors names because for the life of me I cannot remember any part of this title after Alexander and even after I write it I still can't remember.  This isn't really relevant to my review but just thought I would throw that in there.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014)

Alexander Cooper (Ed Oxenbould) is usually the one in the family to have a bad day, their lives seem to go well while he is stuck with gum in his hair and various other calamities. That is until he wishes for his family to have a bad day instead of him, which leads to a whole heap of chaos.

I was stuck in an apartment with nothing to do except watch films, i was looking for something easy to watch and that is what I got with this one.  Its not overly clever or hysterically funny but its entertaining and keeps you interested throughout.  I've caught some reviews for this and everyone says how bad it is, 'truly awful' and 'don't waste your money' - OK so maybe I wouldn't pay to go to the cinema to see it but when its on the TV its not all that bad.

I liked this more than I thought I would! It's definitely not a film targeted at me and it's super cheesy, but I wasn't bored for a single minute.

The Longest Week (2014)

Conrad (Jason Bateman) is a spoilt man-child who lives in the hotel that his parents own. When they decide to get divorced neither of them want to pay for Conrad and so he gets left out in the cold.  In the same week, he falls out with his best friend and falls in love, making up the longest week.

I think this was supposed to be good but I just couldn't get into it, in fact I fell asleep twice and I had to rewind it to the point when I dosed off.  Unfortunately, I was that uninterested that I couldn't place where I had fallen asleep, do I had to start from the beginning each time! argh!  I don't think helped with my opinion of the film.  It had a Wes Anderson feel about it but less edgy and clever.

This film actually felt like a week to me. I was convinced I'd love it because of the cast, but wow, it sure fell short of the mark!

Step Up All In (2014)

I'm not even going to provide a synopsis for this, its the same story as every other Step up movie and every other dance movie for that matter.  As per usual, the dance sequences are amazing to watch and the music is awesome but the dialogue is painful at best and the story utterly predictable.  I was expecting a bit more from the choreography though, I always expect the newer dance movies to improve on the older ones but this one just didn't step up <--- yes I went there!! (Groan...)