We know you still believe in that big fat creeper (Krampus 2015)

273.

Krampus

5/10

Two subjects that couldn't be further on my tolerance spectrum come together for my film beginning with 'K'. I love the horror genre and pretty much despise anything Christmas so it'll be very interesting to see how I fell after sitting through this movie. I've seen the Krampus depicted in other things, ranging from movies to animated series and what the figure stands for varies through each viewing but this is going to be a downright horror so expect some killing. The movie stars The film stars Adam Scott, Toni Collette and David Koechner, with Toni Collette being the only one I know by name and I can say that I have seen all three in other roles. Collette more recently in Hereditary which I thought was God awful. I'd be lying if I said that this movie has all the characteristics of being an absolute masterpiece, but if we go in simply wanting some escapism for a couple of hours, there is at least some potential for enjoyment.

The movie revolves around a family of four, with Adam Scott and Toni Collette's characters as parents and their daughter and son in the Christmas period. Also living with them is their Grandmother from Europe, who doesn't speak a lick of English.  In a twist that would almost be a National Lampoons homage, we get some guests in the form of a sister, brother-in-law, their kids and an aunt, who are the complete opposite in style from our focus family. The son, therefore, gets bullied by his cousins for still believing in Santa and in the end, his Christmas wish list is read at the table.

 He tears the letter up and throws it out the window. That night, a massive blizzard heads into town and shit starts to hit the fan. With the electricity out, the next morning, the daughter wants to leave to make sure her boyfriend is ok. She's set upon by a horned creature whilst the brother-in-laws set out to find her and are also attacked by something below the snow. Back at the house, everyone is set upon by evil toys, gingerbread men and some are even dragged up the chimney. 

The German Grandmother gives us a bit of history in which she had met the Krampus before and after some shoddy animation, she sacrifices herself so that everyone else can escape the house. This leaves us with an attempted escape down the road as each character gets picked off. We are finally left with the young lad Max and one of his cousins, who ends up being taken before Max tracks down the ritual area. We see Krampus and his evil elves chucking the family into some firey portal. We get Max crying and begging the Krampus stops his actions and returns his family as we also get a good look at this demon. Like a melted and whithered Santa Claus,  he seems to understand the point Max is making until he picks him up and chucks him into the fire. 

The scene cuts and Max wakes up in bed on Christmas morning. Going down to see his whole family and the house isn't wrecked, there is more Christmas spirit along with the happiness shown by Max which the family are a little surprised about. That's until Max opens his present to find one of Krampus' Bauble as a gift. This starts a flood of memories for the family and they remember that this wasn't just a bad dream for Max. The events were real and the camera pans out to reveal that the family's house is actually inside a snow globe on a shelf in the Krampus' lair. This is along with many other families and as the scene draws to an end, the toy creatures jump at the screen for one last attempt at a 'jump scare'.

I'm willing to give every horror movie a chance with it being my favourite genre and that even includes a Christmas theme. The film wasn't exactly a downright horror but tilted more towards a comedic value for me. From the outset, it had a National Lampoons feel about the family and from that moment, I was never going to take the movie or storyline seriously. I have wanted to see how Krampus was going to be portrayed and if I'm being honest, I didn't know what to expect. The storyline was a little entertaining since it was such a fast-moving narrative and action-packed horror. At times nothing kicks off until halfway through a horror. We got the movement early with this one and although it kept coming in cheesy moments there was something about the film that could keep the audience entertained and gripped. Each step followed the conventional storyline but this time I was left with a sense of satisfaction that rarely comes from movies. To not see a solution that gives us a happy ending is unlike most that you would get around to seeing. Not seeing the villain die or the family coming away with a somewhat shred of hope was a great change and an outcome that I can get on board with more often. The horror value of the villains fell between mediocre special effects and puppetry, which to an extent, fell in line with how the story was going.
In my eyes, the cast was ample for the film and after only ever seeing most of the cast as side roles of better movies, let's say they didn't take the spotlight with an oscar worthy showing. I doubt I'll see 90% of the faces in a lead role again Toni Collette gained massive plaudits for her role in Hereditary, a movie I think was massively overrated, but in this movie, I warmed to her character a little more. A person fed up of Christmas, not wanting to see the extended family and turned into a badass at the right time, although on this occasion the attempt was futile.
When someone mentions a straight to DVD horror, look no further. It was alright for a watch around Halloween but I wouldn't rush back or even hold out hope for a sequel of any sort. With an element of fun, some attempted jump scares and Christmas theme songs it seemed like Krampus didn't know what movie it wanted to be and ended up falling a tiny bit short on both counts. If I could attach it to a genre of movie it would be like along the lines of Gremlins with each element that I had just mentioned. If you're a horror fan who wouldn't mind a glimpse of Christmas chucked in, by all means, grab some popcorn and sit down for a couple of hours. Just don't come at me afterwards if you want your viewing time back. 

I would create a fake family for that (Just Go With It 2011)

272.

Just Go With It

7/10

My youth was filled with Adam Sandler movies such as Happy Gilmour and The Waterboy, just to name a couple but let's be brutally honest, the guy's comedies had taken a steep decline over the last decade. I loved the earlier stuff but my favourite Sandler film came a little later on. Reign on Me is a great great movie in my eyes and is a far cry from his usual comedy work, but that is a different conversation for another day. Just Go With It was recommended to me whilst climbing the Pantheon in Athens on my first day of travelling around Europe a few years ago. It's taken me a while to get around to it and when I typed 'J'  in the Netflix search, it was there staring back at me. The movie also stars Jennifer Anniston and although I was a little late to the party in watching the complete series of Friends, she is such a recognisable face she's not exactly going to be just a side character. Let's find out whether the title of the movie is a cry to the audience on what we should do whilst we watch!

The movie begins with a wedding day and Sandler's character Danny is about to get married. In the bridal suite, the bride is talking about how she has been cheating on Danny and gave it one more night before the wedding to get it out of her system for now. Danny overhears this, along with his best friends, and walks out. In a bar, he sits as an attractive woman walks in and after seeing his wedding ring, she asks about his wife. He explains that she left him for another man and he ends up sleeping with this woman. This is the ploy for the next 23 years as he creates fictitious failed marriages, dead wives and divorces as he sleeps his way through the women. That's until he meets a girl he likes and sleeps with her without his wedding ring. The next morning she finds the ring in his pocket and shit hits the fan as she won't date someone who is married as this caused the breakdown in her own parent's relationship. This highly attractive female named Palmer has taken Danny by surprise and now he needs to act. The only person who knows his schemes would be his co-worker Katherine, played by Anniston. She is divorced, a mother of two and Danny's new best friend. They know everything about each other and it clicks with me, these two are going to end up together. Don't worry about Palmer, she's just a ploy for the audience and I've seen enough Sandler movies to know which road we are heading down. 

Sandler even has to pretend that Katherine's kids are his own and after buying her loads of new clothes to act as a trophy wife, they all meet Palmer. The son blackmails Danny into taking them all to Hawaii on vacation where they all bond as best possible.

 Danny's mate from the beginning comes along to pretend to be Katherine's new boyfriend. As the vacation carries on Palmer finds a way to get Danny to spend quality time with, what she thinks is, his kids but little does she know that this begins to work against her. He bonds with them, teaching the boy to swim and Katherine sees this and the camera pans in on both females individually to show that they are attracted to this new fathering Danny. Danny and Katherine even end up having a meal together all because Katherine meets an old school friend that was a bit of a bitch to her. She needs Danny to lie and pretend that they are both married, spiralling in to even more lies.

 You can see them both enjoy each other's company and towards the end of the night, the audience is left wondering if they would kiss but they walk away. In each of their rooms, they actually decide to head back towards each other's floor in the hotel, only for Danny to bump into Palmer and somehow they get talked into getting married the next day. Katherine comes out of the elevator doors to find out the news and then take the ride back to her room. The two are left to sleepless nights wondering if something needs to be said but instead we wait until the morning. Katherine speaks to her old 'friend' and admits that she was lying about her own life and that she has fallen in love with Danny. The thing is that Danny was actually standing behind her and admits to stopping the wedding. He has begun to feel exactly the same and enjoys his time with her kids, already feeling like they are a family. The move ends rather quickly from here on out as it shows the two in their wedding day, embracing each other as another scene shows Palmer on a flight getting along with Andy Roddick the famous tennis player, which came from absolutely nowhere.

I have definitely taken my eye off the ball when it comes to Adam Sandler movies. You hear the bad things about some of his comedies in the last ten years and decide to stay away with good reason. I haven't gotten around to the much newer, more serious roles that he's been playing but as mentioned in the beginning, when there's a bit more seriousness, I sit up and take notice. This is no difference here and it feels like some of his older more popular comedy style mixed with a sense of adulthood about him. Maybe he's finally realising what he does well and leaves the nonsensical storyline behind. Yes, the story was extremely predictable and indeed felt like some other rom-com movies from the past twenty years but it still came with a sense of enjoyment and satisfaction with how the story played out by the end. The main difference from all the rest would be the love triangle that emerged. Although we knew how it would play out, it was still interesting to watch a movie where the main female you expect the male to chase down starts to drop back into the shadow and you feel yourself willing the character on to head towards someone else. Little did I know that this was based on Cactus Flower, which was a comedy movie from the late 60s' which revolves around the same kind of story.

For me, Sandler was back to 50 First Dates level of comedy. He had a crude style mixed with real emotion of certain characters which I've heard has been missing from many flops that he had put his name to recently. Jennifer Anniston has only ever been Rachel Green to me but to see her in another role, playing a female who hides her beauty and body rather than flaunting it in Friends, it was a different direction to what I'd seen from her usual role. This gives the audience a sense of compassion and wanting her to 'get the win'  as she is shit out of luck herself but slowly falls for her best friend, who is treating her kids like the father she wants them to have, all whilst watching him try to get with a younger model. I'm more than willing to give some honourable mentions to Bailee Madison and Griffin Gluck who played the kids. They were absolute terrors and downright arseholes at the right time but played their roles very well. There was even time in the movie for some short scenes with the Sandler posse of actors that you used to see in every Sandler movie over the years. Even if it was only for a minute, you recognised the faces.

My next Adam Sandler movie is going to be Uncut Gems, which will be a different direction from what I have just watched here but I know the guy has variety in his catalogue. I'm not sure what else to add other than it was nice to see the comedic storyline reigned in, to an extent, rather than Sandler trying to play two characters of opposite sexes for example. Playing it nice and simple shows that he can still be a decent hit from time to time and it was nice to see the Anniston still has it in the locker. Hopefully, Netflix has helped Sandler's career more than most will notice and we get some more movie that pass a couple of hours on a rainy day.

 

I'm not finished playing yet (I See You 2019)

 271.

I See You

7/10

I See You carries on my journey through movies that I have never seen and are available for streaming on Netflix. Helen Hunt is the only name I could recognise but I'd be forgiven for not noticing her face right away. Since I had seen her in movies such as Twister and What Women Want, she's definitely found someone to try and rearrange her face. IMDB describes the genre of this movie as horror so it would automatically have my attention but let's find out if this is worth seeing or if it should have remained in the shadows. 

I don't want to give too much away when it comes to discussing the full storyline as there are a lot of spoilers, which doesn't actually leave me with much to type on the subject but I'll try. The movie begins with a boy going missing but mainly revolves around a family home.

 A family is torn apart by an affair and as the husband is a detective working on the missing child case. A few things happen around the house which gives me a feeling of paranormal activity. Where the movie goes from here is an easier explanation but also some unexpected consequences. The movie actually restarts halfway through, to show the events from a different perspective. These leads us to characters that we didn't even realise were present. We find out about the strange happenings but we also find out about the child abductor and let's just say it was a little closer to home than first thought. The movie cleverly uses its narrative to show the audience aspects of the story that we actually missed and they either confirmed or ended some suspicions by the end credits. This is wrapped up with the audience possibly following one character and thinking he is a complete tosser but by the end, understanding his actions as they tie in with our main storyline. I won't be going any deeper with the story, but I can say that things did not pan out as I thought they were going to, that's for sure. 

I wouldn't go as far as saying this movie was in the horror genre in my book, more towards a crime thriller at best, although I was made to think differently about how events had started. A horror movie based around a police case for example would be Deliver Us From Evil, which drastically takes a turn towards the paranormal but this progressed away from those characteristics. 

Exploring the cast, I don't need to speak about Helen Hunt's character too much as it turns out the role she played wasn't too integral to the main storyline. That's not to say that it wasn't a good display but her character could have been played by a long list of talent and it would have been the same outcome in my eyes. Jon Tenny, who played the husband Greg, had a slightly more important role, without once again giving too much away. From a quiet man who seemed to be in mourning for his relationship, he switched through the movie to a darker, more sinister role. The other male that we would see a lot of was Owen Teague as Alec. This was the character mentioned that we got frustrated and quite frankly pissed off about but as this guy's character developed its final legs of the character arch, we knew exactly why the attitude he had through the earlier scenes, were apparent. There was no clear main character in the movie, just a collection and this collection gained a few members halfway through.

I have said this before and I'd imagine saying this many times to come... it's a movie that I enjoyed on my first viewing but I would very much doubt I would go back to it for a second viewing. This isn't a criticism for the movie or the story but once you know all of the twists, is there really the same enjoyment level available? You could watch this with a first-time viewer and see if they can guess the story or how they react but that might be about it. Sometimes I can be quite savvy when it's a movie that I'm told has quite a few twists and turns but on this occasion, my brain must have had a meltdown as I hit a few dead ends on m earlier ideas. It was a nice change of pace and refreshing that I hadn't spoilt the movie for myself, that's for sure.