REVIEW: THE CHRISTMAS CHRONICLES 2

 

3/5

Rad Santa. 

115 Mins. Starring: Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn, Judah Lewis, Darby Camp, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Jahzir Bruno, Patrick Gallagher, Julian Dennison, Darlene Love & Tyrese Gibson. Director: Chris Columbus. 

It's beginning to look like 'tis the season for Christmas movies...and Netflix has some crackers. Like the 'Jingle Jangle' of Forest Whitaker's 'Christmas Journey', or even Dolly Parton's, 'Christmas On The Square', straight out of a yuletide Nashville. Just like the 'Holiday Makeover' series with Mr. Christmas in season, Netflix keep wrapping presents for our tree this time of chill. And boy do we need this gift like the presence of our parents. In this 2020, quarantined from COVID-19 and the people we hold dear. Socially distanced and isolated. Just a Zoom away, but more than an arms length. Just ask this writer further East in Japan a year removed from the last time he was flying home for Christmas and the most important thing this time of year is for...family. Watching Christmas movies in between the crown of the Queen's Christmas speech and the 'Toy Story' tradition that comes alive like this days magic. 'Home Alone', 'Home Alone 2: Lost In New York' (skip out for some Egg Nog when you see Trump), basically anything produced by John Hughes. 'Uncle Buck'...don't tell me that this family favourite and girlfriend litmus test everytime I meet someone new isn't a Christmas movie, because like 'Die Hard' I won't yippee ki yay hear it. It doesn't feel like Christmas without it. Just a mess like this years Rockerfella tree ("oh s###mas tree, oh s###mas tree. How the hell do you call those branches?") Like an 'Elf' Easter Egg we need this December 25th for everybody to hear like Christmas cheer. Christmas was made for Christmas movies with the family and falling asleep with that cracking hat still on. But this year it's going to be so much harder. If you're already quarantined together then rock around the Christmas tree like a MJ cut out with Culkin...but if you're not, spare a thought for those who can't see their relatives, or have even already lost one for their first Christmas apart. Stay safe and as distanced as you can. Now's not the time to bring more to their front door then good tidings. We already have to write 2020 off. There's always next year. Especially if we're careful in this one. 

Skype synched with my parents, this fall we brought the festive feeling back early by watching the sequel to 'The Christmas Chronicles' together via video chat. Their box in the corner beaming with fond familiar smiles at the sugary sentiment of this sweet escape after a cruel calendar. Their presence on screen like in spirit, their presents shipped by airmail to this cast away by my side. It was all we could do...but oh how it was beautiful. I recommend you do the same. Especially after this year. Especially after the last one were we watched 2018's 'The Christmas Chronicles' together for the first time like 'A Very Murray Christmas' not knowing yet about the unhappy New Year to come. Nostalgia nodding to Kurt Russell's grubby but grand St. Nick, Santa Claus, Father Christmas. Whatever you want to call him. Not a Billy Bob Thornton 'Bad Santa', but a Rad Santa. Rocking around the prison cell with a Soprano from the Bosses E Street like a 'Letter To You', singing and dancing. Keeping that big beard and marvellous moustache from his forum of a great Western big-three in Quentin Tarantino's 'The Hateful 8', the horror of the genre in 'Bone Tomahawk' and of course the classic 'Tombstone' that brought hell and Val Kilmer's Doc Holiday with him for all your Huckleberry's. Once upon a time...in a festive Hollywood, Kurt Russell is your famous Father Christmas in a malls worth of them. With all due respect to Tim Allen, this is a household name home improvement. The reason Russell (the King of 'The Thing', 'Big Trouble In Little China' and 'Escape From New York' cult, comic 80's sci-fi who has even played Elvis) is doing this for a bigger reason than having a claus in his contract. He just wants even his big kids like Wyatt to see him play somone he's dressed up as for years ever since standing in for the real deal like someone pulled the beard off a throne of lies. Kurt is the truth and as his Chronicles of the North Pole continue in Part Two (someone should tell Dylan it only took him a couple of years to make his second volume), he shows he's still the star on the top of this tree. 

Cameos don't come more classic or black belt buckle fitting than what warmed us by the fire to end the last movie. We saw those iconic Mrs Claus boots walk up and we just knew who would play Santa baby's wife when she leant down to kiss like mistletoe. The fans went 'Overboard'. 'The First Wives Club's' very own Goldie Hawn. The ultimate power couple as the ultimate power couple in pole position in a matrimony of Hollywood's longest marriage. One that's given us so many golden era great movies and the incredible Kate Hudson who made it on her own. Snatching Hawn for this one was a power play and a master move and with even more screen time in the sequel she shows she's the star of the show too like Mrs. Claus finally getting her due and name in candy cane bright lights. If Russell is the heart of this movie, then she's its sweet soul...to have and to hold. And that's not it. As this movie brings back the family who now feel so familiar with the game moxie of Darby Camp and the young stud Judah Lewis. Coming of age, but in this movie by a pool in Cancun, Mexico, a million miles away from the frost of the North Pole is doing his best Doug from 'The Hangover'. No matter, introducing Jahzir Bruno. A knockout child star, stealing young hearts like a young Cupid and being Lion in 'The Wizard Of Oz' brave with a nerf gun. He plays the son of 'Transformers' mega movie and R&B superstar Tyrese Gibson. Who with genuine warmth and hallmark heart gives open invitation to another Christmas card like his 'Black Nativity' with the jangle of Forest Whitaker and a 'Fast and the Furious' reunion with Russell, clutching at a sleigh that looks like it runs on Nitrus. Although these two never meet here on screen. You could have got a classic car pun, drifting that Rudolph injected carriage across the snow...but that's nobodies business. A gentle Gibson romances 'Nashville' star Kimberley Williams-Paisley's perfect mother. Whilst the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's very own Darlene Love showstops an airport performance with a flipping Kurt and 'Captain Marvel' and 'Night At The Museum' Atilla The Hun star Patrick Gallagher as his own security guard check in that even grounds the bars of the last tinsel prison break...down. But it's 'Hunt For The Wilderpeople', 'Deadpool 2' and forthcoming 'Godzilla vs Kong' star Julian Dennison who steals the show yet again. The Kiwi chirps quips as a house elf who's sick of wrapping presents, instead wanting to live his life as a cotton-headed ninny muggins. 'Home Alone', 'Harry Potter' and 'Miss Doubtfire' director Chris Columbus may have not discovered America, but he sure knows how to make the great American holiday movie for under your tree. Last Christmas may have been better, but this chronicle still has the ability to spread festive cheer even in a year of drear. Joy for this joyeux noel. This one is filled with more Christmas spirit than you could throw a CGI elf at. It's time to still believe in the magic. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'The Christmas Chronicles', 'Overboard', 'Elf'. 

TV REVIEW : THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR REUNION

4/5

Now, This Is A Story.

75 Mins. Starring: Will Smith, Alfonso Ribeiro, Karyn Parsons, Tatyana M. Ali, Ross Bagley, Joseph Marcell, Jeff Townes, Daphne Maxwell Reid, Janet Hubert & James Avery. 

Yo, home to Bel-Air! No matter if this cab is rare. Let's pull up to this house, about 7 or 8 before we tell this year, "smell ya later" like 'The Simpsons'. Thankful this Thanksgiving, this is one homecoming reunion you really want a seat at the table for. Especially in this truly tragic 2020, that from Kobe to Chadwick and COVID-19 to police brutality has lead us towards some dark places looking for the light and inspiration like that of the Black Lives Matter movement. A calendar that coronavirus has crippled so much that we may not be even able to go home in time for the holidays this Christmas. Still let's spare a thought for those who have lost their nearest and dearest this year and stay safe and distanced at home watching 'Home Alone' in a Zoomed dinner date with our family. Or maybe we could watch this? Because when it comes to fictional families. From 'The Jeffersons' to 90's golden era sitcom greats like the 'Frasier' psychiatric clan tossing salad, or the one were those 'Friends' became closer than their cross the hall, Manhattan studio apartments, this is our millennial generations 'Cosby Show'. And as Bill Cosby ruined all that, nothing feels closer right now than that NBC studio audience living room they have brought back in reunion for this special of 'The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air'. One that as fondly familiar as a household name feels like your own one. So much so you wish you feel like you could just head to the kitchen and flambé some meat. POOF! All airing now on the new Netflix, Amazon Prime and of course Baby Yo...I mean the Disney + streaming service, HBO Max. One that has recently revealed another reunion in the 'Hartsfield Landing' Los Angeles Orpheum Theatre theatrical, more than a table read of a 'West Wing' (like Chris Rock's Prince versus Michael Jackson joke. Or 'The Fresh Prince' versus 'Cosby Show'. 'The West Wing' versus Kevin Spacey's 'House Of Cards'? 'The West Wing' won!) reunion special featuring Sterling K. Brown in place, paying tribute to the late, great Jon Spencer for Michelle Obama's 'When We All Vote' campaign (and look at the good that did). Or Los Angeles Laker legend LeBron James and Maverick Carter's 'Shop' talk with Mr. President, number 44 like Jerry West, Barack Obama. Not to mention the DC takeover that starts with the long awaited, pushed back 'Wonder Woman 1984' sequel this Christmas, before the 2021 New Year of the even longer awaited and highly anticipated, fan petitioned, demanded and made happen Snyder cut of the 'Justice League'. Now watch the 'Watchmen' this year. HBO really are taking it to the max, but with this one they're bringing it home like whistling for a cab with dice in the mirror. 

'Thriller'. A young Will Smith sat under the multi-platinum plaque of the greatest album of all-time that has sold more copies than groceries with the King of Pop starring down at him with a knowing look like ("don't f### this up. A hee-hee"). Michael Jackson in spirit behind him, the real deal Quincy Jones standing in front of him as clear as day and the fact that he owned the 80's like shell suits (we see you in your audition Alfonso) and being Rick rolled back to the future. "What do you need?" Quincy asked Will like he was never going to give him up. A party in the next room waiting for his make and break audition. Before 'Independence Day'. Before 'Willennium'. Time to get that 'Big Willie Style' on before its time. Because the time was now for the young first rap Grammy award winning rapper the Fresh Prince with no acting experience like 'Parents Don't Understand'. Time to think you can beat Mike Tyson. Time to BOOM shake the room. Summertime can wait. Drums please! "What do you need?" Quincy asked again. Famous people peaking through the crack in the door for a closer look at the future. "Two weeks". They settled on ten minutes...and the rest is history. Will tells the story better, like he does the one of the time Michael Bay told him not to wear a shirt on his iconic 'Bad Boys' run (I mean, whatcha gonna do?) on King James' 'The Shop', or a more important one we'll get to later. Holding court and counsel on that couch. Karyn Parson's perfect Hilary sat next to him unchanged since her amazing audition day. Tatyana M. Ali close by getting a load of her rapping cousin. Joseph Marcell's Jeffrey to the left like "canon, volley and thunder" no longer at your service, but still cleaning up on your television sets like being on London soap, 'Eastenders'. And "he's the DJ" to his rapper, Jeff Townes AKA DJ Jazzy Jeff rocking the house like their classic album cover too a few seats over. This time with no threat of being thrown out...because he's not wearing that iconic gold print shirt. Time to find out the story behind that too. Like the Alfonso Ribeiro "Carlton dance" (or the amazing 'Apache' one) everyone does like the Charleston to Tom Jones, that's not unusual even to people who haven't watched this generation show passed down to family over the decades. An important one in black history and excellence. Changing the game and even breaking the fourth wall before Ryan Reynolds' 'Deadpool' in these wonder years like the time a feet dragging Carlton just lost it like Eminem and ran around the set and into Smith's embrace. All as the loving, "there's something different about you" mother of Daphne Maxwell Reid's lovely Aunt Viv looks on with beaming pride, choked up on a seat that still has the print and warmth left by another man it was meant for. 

Nostalgia hasn't got much more beautiful this year than this as you mouth along to the words like Smith used to do hilariously with his lines. I haven't cried as much-even in this 2020-as this. Happy tears. Sad tears. Tears of nostalgia. Tears because I'll never be married to Karyn Parsons. Tears for Uncle Phil. Tears for the ones we can't get back. Tears for the ones we can. Tears for redemption reunions. Now how they pulled this one off is truly amazing. Even after recreating the classic living room, brick by brick, sofa for chair, even after packing it all up literally for the last episode with Will standing in the empty room not knowing thirty years later he'd become a meme like a laughing Leo in the 'Django' he passed up for 'Men In Black 3'. Or hit that light again. Or even do this. Walk up to the empty audience bleachers and meet the one woman sitting there. This woman being to many the one and only Aunt Viv. Janet Hubert. After all these years. Still looking the same like the fact that it don't crack. Black and beautiful. Ready to bury the hatchet like 'Uncle Buck', no axe to grind. Ready to let Will and the world know what really happened. Was she fired? Does she hate him? Normally moments like this made for TV can seem crass or contrived. Forced. But this with real feeling is anything but those negative emotions and connotations. This refreshing moment of clarity and peace making is as raw and real and as brutal and beautiful as it gets. Especially for this series production team and star of the show himself to admit (for Will Smith a man of such charisma and positive ego to humbly say he was wrong when he didn't understand is something else), or even braver for Janet to relive after all these years and tears. But we should let them tell it, like only they should, settling this all once and for all. Before a beautiful reunion for all the family that will fill you with as much warmth as nostalgia as you have seeing two beloved aunts together for the first time, or when you realize who Ross Bagley is my darling Nicky. But after all these years there's always something missing. And the biggest presence is missing here. Not just in stature, but in heart. The greatest uncle of all-time. One who feels like your own at home. Uncle Phil. The late, great James Avery. Remembered and reminisced in emotional, epic tribute like "we" as a family always do. Like that real bungee jump (don't get us started on Trevor) picture of Will a few years back looking like James. Or taking it way back to that iconic, emotional "how come he don't want me" father scene that should have never been turned into a meme (although that "home come LeBron don't want me man" ring replacing face was funny...while it lasted haters), as Smith storytells about the amazing Shakespearean trained Avery looking at him with real emotion, pulls him in close, pulling off his baseball cap like he just lost his youth as we zoom into the sculpture he brought for his departed Dad. "Now that's f###### acting right there!" Like the time he made Carlton give him the gun. Or Uncle Phil thought he let him down. Bringing the golf dance, jet-ski classics back like breaking out Lucille (take that swing Negan). All as they watch his highlights like a 90's Jordan in this last dance." Oh I miss you James" his on-screen wife Daphne says with fondness. Echoing all of us as we fade to black. There will never be one like him, like there will never be a show like this. We've missed him since 2013 like we miss this show. How has it been seven years? How has it been 30? Three decades later in the worst start to the new roaring one, retaking his throne as the Prince of Bel-Air, the kid from West Philadelphia (born and raised) who spent most of his days on the playground takes us back to our youth and our member of the family memory. Our life's got flipped, turned upside down this year. But lets take a minute. Just sit right there. And reminisce on how this Fresh man became the Prince of a town called Bel-Air. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air', 'A West Wing Special To Benefit When We All Vote', 'The Jeffersons'. 

T.V. REVIEW: THE CROWN Season 4

 

4/5

The Queen's Gambit. 

10 Episodes. Starring: Olivia Colman, Tobias Menzies, Helena Bonham Carter, Josh O'Connor, Emma Corrin, Erin Doherty, Marion Bailey, Gillian Anderson & Charles Dance. Creator: Peter Morgan.

Now who thought you'd ever hear the word, "tw##" on 'The Crown'? Slithering down on one knee like a sleazy fiancée, Margaret Thatcher bends the knee in front of her Royal Highness like she was lowering a sword as she slurs, "your Majesty". The veins of cold, old hands hanging on to every word like most people try to grasp to positions of power like the red binder of a manifesto. The struggle of power and the Caesar crowning notion of corrupting absolutely like wars waged. "The fiercest battles can take place behind closed doors" the trailer for Season 4 of Netflix's 'The Crown' says as Number 10 tries to take Queen in this Gambit. From Claire Foy (so entrenched in Elizabeth that her epic English accent even comes out sometimes in her sublime Swedish assassin in the amazing 'The Girl In The Spider's Web'), to 'The Favorite' on the throne, Olivia Colman CBE, 'The Crown' is already one of the best shows on television (or smartphone or whatever you use to watch things now we're locked down at home in quarantine), but Season 4 may be the best yet. All the way down to the make-up (shout out to an old and good friend taking her throne here for this show in that very department. And how about the reference to my hometown Southport too? I say! Jolly good show!), as 'The X Files' T.V. star Gillian Anderson stares into the Downing Street mirror like the half of what she did in London's West End for the theatrical remake of 'All About Eve', light years away from Scully as Margaret Thatcher. Truly out of this world and on another plain as the perfectly played villain of this piece, who even like a predator asks for her victims to be sent in "one by one". One that pawing at everything puppet string plays like 'The Godfather'. But this time with a deer head instead of a horses put to bed on a Balmoral test like a Bushtucker trial ("I'm a Conservative, get me out of here!") that doesn't go with those blue suede shoes stepping on and in mud. We'll get to who channels Michael Corleone soon just when one thought they were out. But pulling you back in the amazing Anderson, looking as distant and no expletives given gone as a stare like a thousand yards, puts her earrings and war paint on, getting ready for her carriage down the mall to storm Buckingham Palace. With a frosty complexion and look that could crack the glass of this mirror like this coming Winter or seven year bad luck (like we need anymore after 2020). All to the haunting "ah, ah" sounds of The Smiths' 'How Soon Is Now'. "Woman to woman. We are the same age after all" Anderson's Margaret tells Colman's Elizabeth after putting on a ring like it was a brass knuckle, "just six months between us". "Oh" the Queen replies in one's trademark. Sitting off to the side everytime they meet in both defence and disrespect. "And who is the senior" she asks with scorn. "I am" declares Thatcher. Adding a customary Ma'am at the end like a final punch. Iron Lady takes Queen in this gambit. Checkmate.

Flashbulbs pop as someone truly fit for a Queen walks down a red carpet laid just for her. The kind of woman who would have you singing "who's that lady" like Motown's Isley Brothers, or more appropriately 'Dirty Diana' by Michael Jackson, even if the King of Pop refused to play that at a show she was in attendance for, much to the princesses dismay and disappointment (she loved that song). How can you talk about 'The Crown' without talking about Princess Diana? She's here now. Even those waiting tentatively for 'Tenet' star Elizabeth Debicki's Royal appointment as Lady Diana like Netflix 'Two Popes' star Jonathan Price's Prince Philip needed to know there's someone just as good like Foy and Vanessa Kirby are as Olivia and Helena Bonham Carter's Princess Margaret, or a terrific Tobias Menzies and masterful Matt Smith's Philip. As DC 'Gotham' spin-off 'Pennyworth' star Emma Corrin is at your service like Alfred as she is truly the people's princess, rollerskating around the palace with a Walkman. “Your duty now is the choice of a woman who people will love as a princess and in due course, as Queen," 'Game Of Thrones' Legend Charles Dance tells Josh O'Connor as Diana's dress of matrimony follows her as long as her legion of adoring fans, with a look that says this young Prince playing Pacino doesn't see it this same way. Eye to eye in this eye for an eye, heads will roll play for the throne. It's a look of daggers that could draw swords like horse and carriage, just when they thought the confetti of their just married, King and Queen wedding day would reign on them forever. Instead dragging cans before the honeymoon phase even began. Waving goodbye from the backseat like the traditional trademark farewell address of Her Majesty. 

Trooping the colour, horse drawn in the opening scene with Spitfire's lighting up the sky like those fireworks at night, Olivia Colman shows everyone who's Queen as the Academy Award winning actress salutes the soldiers like Captain Sir Tom Moore. This is still her show like those 15 minutes after you've had Christmas Dinner...and what a speech she'll have this of all years as out waistlines wrapped around like tinsle are set to deliver our Christmas turkey food babies. From landmark, groundbreaking TV shows like ITV's 'Broadchurch', or the BBC's 'Fleabag', Colman has never been as compelling as she is in this Netflix show. Even when she played Queen Anne for Yorgos Lanthimos like a 'Lobster'. And in her sister act with another absolute icon in Helena Bonham Carter-with sunrise and tequila shades of her Liz Taylor as Princesses Margaret-they form a dynamic duo, one/two punch like the California crown of King James and Anthony Davis. Yet its her marriage in matrimony with Tobias Menzies Prince Philip that years for more. Menzies probably giving one of the most mesmerizing moments of this fourth season as a father upset at his son not for having a surrogate father, but being replaced as the surrogate son (isn't it ironic like Morissette?) in the first of all episodes which belongs on stage for 'The Audience' of this play based series. The 'Outlander' star is outstanding like the time his royal eat humble pie in front of his mother with the morning paper. Menzies like the, "two women running the shop", just remind us like Foy, Kirby and Smith how such a shame it is that this is it now for their character, before this one third give their way to the next two seasons of change. Whether that be Helen Mirren or another royal appointment but Peter Morgan the creator of 'The Queen'. Binge beware. Let's enjoy their moment on the throne whilst it lasts. Like a classic O'Connor. More than the ears, but someone who hears Charles. Like his sister with the hilarious, affectionate name for her siblings hearing instruments, as the Bristol Old Vic and British Broadcasting Corporation 'Les Miserables' young star Erin Doherty offers more character dressage to a young Princess Anne showjumping. Whilst Marion Bailey's Queen Mother and a real throne player in this Chess piece in the form of Charles Dance really completes the board like Bishop and rook. We're all just pawns in this, watching and fact checking. But from an Anderson acclaimed Thatcher as good as John Lithgow's award winning, two fingers and cigar of Churchill that my Royal aficionado friend Richard says has "Emmy" written all over it, to a cinematic introduction to Lady Di playing like Shakespeare between the faux ferns of a 'Midsomers Night Dream', this crown has all the jewels in season. Going fourth at a time where like Brexit this reflection on the royal silverware shows us that this kingdom we live in is anything but united right now. But even tilted crowns find their head again. There's always another side to the coin. Oh yes! TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'The Iron Lady', 'Diana', 'The Godfather'.