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: Cooties (2015)

You know when you say you have to be in a certain mood to watch certain genres of film? What sort of mood do you have to be in to want to watch a silly horror comedy? A weird one, probably! I don’t do horror at all, but when it’s a comedy I’ll give it a go. Throw in a couple of my favourite TV actors at the same time, and sure, count me in! That’s how I ended up watching Cooties the other night.

Cooties was never a thing in school for me, is it more of an American term? We still had the whole ‘don’t go near Sally’ but it was normally an actual disease like the mange or rabies that kids would decide upon. Anyway, Cooties is a fun little zombie-like comedy in which an entire school gets infected with Cooties, turning the children into flesh eating monsters. Trapped in the school, the teachers, including Clint (Elijah Wood), Wade (Rainn Wilson), Lucy (Alison Pill) and Tracy (Jack McBrayer) are left fighting for their lives.

I would firstly like to thank Cooties for making me never want to eat a chicken nugget again. Those opening credits were possible the most grimm thing I have ever seen, and was actually the most horrible part of the whole movie! Shudder. 

The plot and the general premise had all the elements of a winner, but also a stinker, and honestly I think it fell somewhere in the middle. It was funny, but it never made me laugh out loud. Okay, I laughed out loud once. But really, when is a kid shouting the ‘C’ word not funny?! It wasn’t scary either, which isn’t a complaint from me! I feel like it’s more of a horror spoof, but without the stupidness of actual spoof movies, if that makes sense. It was really enjoyable though!

I liked how it poked fun of other horror films. How many times have you sat watching a horror and just thought, if they simply took their mobile phone out of their pocket and made a quick call, they would be perfectly safe? Cooties knows how you feel, man. It deals with that for you. It also pays homage to a lot of 80’s action films, which is pretty funny actually. Rainn Wilson get’s some cheesy one liners that will make you smile.

Without giving spoilers, I just don’t know how to feel about the ending. I’m not sure if it was laziness in the writing, or simply opening itself up to a sequel, but I’m undecided. All in all though, Cooties was much better than I thought it would be, and is a half decent popcorn comedy.