Christmas Cast-a-thon - Jenna's post

This was so much harder than I thought it was going to me, I really thought it would be easy to cast the perfect Christmas movie but it really isn't.  After hours of pondering, this is what I have come up with.

Santa Claus - Hal from Malcolm in the Middle (Bryan Cranston)

In most Christmas movies, Santa is the boss.  He works tirelessly to keep the helpers on track to make all the presents in time for Christmas.  As far as the helpers are concerned xxx is the boss but behind the scenes, Santa is completely whipped by Mrs Claus, the real brains behind the operation.

Scrooge/Grinch/Mrs Claus - Megan from Bridesmaids (Melissa McCarthy)

Megan was initially attracted to Hal's power as Santa but over time has taken over the North Pole and runs it her way.  Hal doesn't have the balls to argue with her so just leaves her to it to live an easy life but Megan has no idea how to run the business and things start to go awry.

Santa's Sidekick - Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones (Peter Dinklage)

Tyrion is completely aware of the control Mrs Claus has over Santa but no matter how much he tells Hal, he just wont listen.  In the end, he has to recruit outside help to when Mrs Claus' interference threatens to destroy Christmas.

Santa’s Helpers - Minions (Stuart, Bob, Kevin and friends) from Minions

Stuart, Bob and Kevin (as head helpers) ran the toy factory with perfect synchronicity making millions of toys for all the good children if the world, that is until Mrs Claus decided they weren't right for the job and brought in their replacements.....

Mrs Claus' Helpers - Magic Mike (Channing Tatum), Big Dick Richie (Joe Manganiello), Ken (Matt Bomer) and Tito (Adam Rodriguez) from Magic Mike XXL  

...Mrs Claus brings her new helpers for their 'talents' and 'assets' but spends all of her time making them dance for her and now it's 3 days until Christmas and there are no toys for all the good children.

The Children - Mikey (Sean Astin), Mouth (Corey Feldman), Data (Jonathan Ke Quan) and Chunk (Jeff Cohen) from The Goonies

In the years following the saviour of their beloved town and the capture of notorious criminals, The Fratelli's, life is pretty quiet for the Goonies, that is until they are sought out by Tyrion to save Christmas and take down Mrs Claus before it's too late....

Can't wait to see everyone else's christmas cast-a-thon posts!

Review: Magic Mike XXL (2015)

I  have been quite looking forward to this since Magic Mike.  I know you're all thinking, typical woman, can't wait to watch muscular chaps get their kits off and dance around.....and you would be right!  But also, the original one had quite a dark story which I really enjoyed....I did....I swear.....

Magic Mike XXL starts 3 years after Mike (Channing Tatum) bowed out of the stripper game for good.  A phone call from Tarzan (Kevin Nash) brings the old gang back together (less Matthew McConaughey's Dallas and Alex Pettyfer's 'The Kid') for one last hurrah as a convention in Myrtle Beach.  Tito (Adam Rodriguez), Ken (Matt Bomer), Big Dick Richie (Joe Manganiello) along with Mike and Tarzan embark on a road trip (interjected with various strip teases) to perform their final routine.

I can't say I didn't enjoy this film, I really did but not for the story.  That was poor in comparison to the original and it became a bit more cheesy than dark and sometimes grim original which was a bit disappointing to be honest.  I can say however that the strip sequences made the film watchable, i'm not even being a pervert (i swear!), I love dance routines in films and that is effectively what they were.  It didn't hurt that they were half naked mind......

The ensemble don't quite nail the chemistry that they had in the first one and they overplayed some of the elements from the first film but the finale absolutely blew the whole film out of the water, I replayed it twice!!  

Awesomely entertaining but didn't quite match up to the first one.