Change Your Image
rick-centner
Reviews
Mr. Holmes (2015)
The mystery is in Holmes' mind
Having read the book, and served as my late wife's primary caregiver over her 11 years of a fight with Alzheimer's, I found the story quite touching, if not very revealing. Why one reviewer felt compelled to mention that George Takei and Sir Ian are part of the LGBT community (neither a big deal nor an act of courage in our Brave New World) eludes me. This is a cerebral, rather than an action, film (and book). The mystery is in Holmes mind, and well done. The atmosphere is captivating and the plot compelling, even if rather slow. It's an excellent translation of the book to film, although it's far from your usual Holmes adventure. I was quite surprised at how well it was done, considering the source material. Well worth seeing, in my opinion, despite my preference for Jeremy Brett, Basil Rathbone and Arthur Wontner. I recommend it enthusiastically despite my avid dislike for Ian McKellen, something that has no connection with his LGBT life. I simply find him very off-putting.
A Carol Christmas (2003)
A pleasant surprise, especially considering Tori.
Each year, the Christmas/Chanukah season sees a plethora of new and reissued movies celebrating the holidays. Some are groaners, a few are terrific (such as "Comfort and Joy" elevated by Nancy McKeon and Steven Eckholt's performances), and a handful make seasonal films worth taking a chance on. "A Carol Christmas" is one of these. I almost skipped it because of Tori Spelling, but can't resist checking out the latest "Christmas Carol" pastiches. Tori's acting was better here than what I've seen previously to about the same degree that the reformed Carol was to the "bad" Carol. Gary Coleman, as the Ghost of Christmas Past, was surprisingly and wisely understated. Willam Shatner, whose "real life" counterpart was a Dr. Phil send-up, was campy as usual. But writer Tom Amundsen cleverly managed to fit the ghost's campiness within the "real world" of the story. Dinah Manoff was outstanding as the conniving Aunt Marla, on whose machinations the plot revolves. Initially, Jason Brooks struck me as an odd choice for Carol's love interest, but he won me over. The key to the success of "A Carol Christmas," in my opinion, is the fact that Amundsen, who wrote several episodes of the classic series "Perfect Strangers," combined some excellent comedy with a somewhat gentle touch when it came to copying Dickens' original. He was also restrained without being coy in the way he made his points about the moral messages in the film. "A Carol Christmas" is, in my opinion, far better than several big screen Christmas releases of the past two or three years, in which major stars have strained and struggled with overblown scripts in efforts that yielded precious few real laughs. A tip of the hat as well to the always reliable Michael Landes, and Nina Siemanszko (recurring in the Mystery Woman series on Hallmark). They and other supporting cast members gave this surprisingly good Christmas film a realism and poignancy that left us with smile on our lips and a warm feeling in our hearts.