lafemmeecarlate Reviews

The Christmas Chronicles (2018)

Ho ho no...nice premise, cringey execution

[5/10 · 28 December 2019]

I must have watched a different movie to the one everyone else has reviewed. I got to the end only because I couldn't be bothered finding something else to watch.

The story itself is interesting enough, with the right amount of conflict/emotion/heartwarming moments.

The acting, overall, was solid. There were some genuinely funny/moving moments, with the humour generally coming from Kurt Russell, who carried the whole movie.

The problem was the frequent cringey moments and unnecessary filler scenes. Silly musical number, too much time spent on the elves... it just took too long. It was frustrating to sit through some scenes just thinking, "Apparently time is of the essence, but we have time for this? This isn't even funny. Why am I watching this? When will it end? Why hasn't it ended yet? This doesn't even make sense."

If they cut out the filler scenes, it would have actually been a much more enjoyable movie.

Furious 7 (2015)

10/10 for the Paul Walker tribute, but that can't undo the movie

[6/10 · 3 April 2015]

I think a lot of the reviewers are giving this movie high scores because of the whole 'it was Paul Walker's last' thing.

The tribute to him was, in my view, perfect and I think it was executed really well. Full marks on that.

But let's be real about the actual movie. You have to suspend belief from 5 minutes and keep it suspended until the tribute starts.

These movies have always had a level of bang and stunts that was unrealistic, and there is A LOT of that in this movie, but even the plot itself is ridiculous. How many innocent third parties are allowed to be killed and or have their property damage so a bunch of street racers can try to settle a score with a guy so highly trained, a TEAM of special forces guys couldn't take him down after the government decided he was more of a liability than an asset (so we are told). Seems like a legit premise...

If you are after a bit of fun and action then this movie is just fine. I didn't not enjoy it. But the plot is so ridiculously unrealistic that for me, it made for a disappointing end to the franchise.

As I said in the title, the beautiful Paul Walker tribute can't undo the silly of this movie. I think I will just cut Tokyo Drift out of my collection so I can pretend Han never died and movie 7 never needed to happen.