Netflix Holiday Movie Review: “A Boy Called Christmas” (2021) & “A Castle for Christmas” (2021)

The Netflix equivalent of putting up your Christmas tree and/or starting your holiday shopping the day after Thanksgiving, this year, the streaming service's version of Black Friday comes in two new high profile, high caliber Christmas movies which are scheduled to premiere on Friday, November 26.

Inspired by the question “was Father Christmas ever a boy?” which was posed by author Matt Haig's son, the first film, from “Monster House” director Gil Kenan, is a gorgeously crafted, old-fashioned fairytale adaptation of Haig's bestselling 2015 British children's book “A Boy Called Christmas.”

Tonally a cross between C.S. Lewis, Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Dickens, J.K. Rowling, and Roald Dahl in its balance of darkness, magic, heart, and light, Kenan's film begins with a framing device straight out of “The Princess Bride.”Arriving at their home late at night, a great aunt played by the irreplaceable Maggie Smith tells the tale of the brave boy we'll all eventually know as Father Christmas to her young relatives at bedtime. Next, switching to a different time and place, we move away from contemporary London as Smith's fable starts to play out before our eyes.

Still reeling from the loss of his mother, which is something shared by the characters in the modern setting as well, “Christmas” chronicles the plight of Nikolas (portrayed by top-notch relative newcomer Henry Lawfull). Fearing for the safety of the sole parent he has left (Michiel Huisman), Nikolas sets out on a perilous journey to the north to find his dad when he fails to return from his search for the village of Elfhelm in order to bring hope to us all.  

Populated by a who's who of great character actors, including Sally Hawkins, Kristen Wiig, Jim Broadbent, Toby Jones, and Stephen Merchant (priceless here as the voice of Miika the Mouse), the film looks and sounds like a dream, thanks to the effects team and production designer behind the “Paddington” movies, and a lovely score courtesy of the great Dario Marianelli. Additionally, it's fun to see the actors let loose, particularly Hawkins and Wiig who relish their Wicked Witch-like moments to eat up the screen. 

The type of film you could leave on in the background when you make cookies or put up your tree, while it's easy to lose yourself in the snowy spectacle of it all, disappointingly from a narrative standpoint, “A Boy Called Christmas” runs out of steam quickly. With episodic plot points, as the indefatigable, ever-determined, delightful Lawfull encounters one new character or problem after another in a by-the-numbers fashion, it grows increasingly repetitive as it continues on.

Although I am unfamiliar with the source material, I can't help but ask if perhaps its error might be an early “Harry Potter” franchise-style case of staying far too faithful to the book. Needless to say, of course, young fans of Haig's novel are sure to love seeing every moment come to life. For the rest of us, however, despite some beautiful revelations that come to light near the end of the movie, its muddled second act makes it feel twice as long as the first, and I think most viewers who don't know Haig's novel will grow restless as soon as the storyline begins to wander.

Still, from the jaw-dropping 4k presentation where even the opening sequence of Smith walking down a light-filled city street feels painterly (and indeed I wondered but really didn't care if it was CG), “A Boy Called Christmas” is a stellar technical achievement from these talented craftsmen, even if it doesn't fully work for me as a film overall. Not nearly as successful as “Monster House” or Kenan's wonderful adaptation of “City of Ember,” (of which I might be the only fan and still wish for a sequel), he's such a great director that regardless of the film's shortcomings, I look forward to seeing what he'll do next.

Incidentally, it turns out that looking forward is exactly what romance author Sophie Brown (Brooke Shields) realizes she needs to do at the start of director Mary Lambert's picturesque holiday romcom travelogue “A Castle for Christmas.” 

Whereas “A Boy Called Christmas” was made for the kids, “A Castle for Christmas” is Netflix's present for teens and adults. It comes in the form of a fun, fluffy, snowflake light hybrid of the kinds of seasonal romances that Lifetime and the Hallmark Channel produce with alarming frequency and the sassier UK romcoms that Hugh Grant made popular back in the '90s. 

Centered on Shields' Brown, the plot of "Castle" is incredibly straightforward.  Having killed off the romantic hero of her dozen bestselling novels after a messy divorce, Sophie Brown incurs the wrath of her heartbroken legion of fans who want their dream man back. In desperate need of a change of scenery, she journeys to Scotland to not only hide out and write the next book in her popular Emma Gale romance series but also visit the castle that her late father loved while growing up as the son of the groundskeeper there. 

Having barely arrived in her new surroundings, Sophie finds new friends quickly when she joins the knitting club in the pub of the inn where she's staying. The same dynamic we encountered in Netflix's outstanding (and much more substantive) adaptation of the acclaimed novel “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society," in “Castle,” the scenes that producer-star Shields shares with her motley knitting crew are absolutely delightful.

Still, as the romance author she's portraying here knows, you can't have a love story without a male lead, and thankfully, for that we have Cary Elwes getting his scowl on as the sour, curmudgeon-like Duke of said castle, who eventually melts under Sophie's charms.

Phenomenally predictable to anyone who's ever seen a romantic comedy before, while the pair are excellent in their roles, Sheilds and Elwes' chemistry does leave a little something to be desired, although that's likely more the fault of their underdeveloped characters than the actors in question, who aren't given a whole lot with which to work.

One of those movies where the credits reveal that it was written by a committee of four different writers, it feels like certain screenwriters were hoping to emphasize the knitting club as well as develop a potential B or C romantic subplot, and others were more clearly focused on the castle angle. All in all, it's a bumpy yet nonetheless, above-average cheery holiday romance.

Featuring a welcome cameo by Drew Barrymore that bookends the film as she first appears in a slightly cringeworthy over-the-top introduction to Sophie Brown who loses it live on Barrymore's talk show (which Shields plays too broadly), Barrymore returns at the end during the final credits in a very funny two-hander between the two women.

Targeted to Gen X, it's ideally suited to those from the era who grew up watching Shields and Barrymore, were dazzled by Lambert's iconic Madonna music video “Like a Prayer,” and frightened by her adaptation of “Pet Semetary,” and fell in love with “Castle” leading man Cary Elwes in “The Princess Bride.” And indeed, Netflix is smart to aim for this demographic. 

Usually overlooked in seasonal fare that's often developed with late teens and early twenty-somethings in mind, “A Castle for Christmas” is just the pleasantly diverting, if ultimately forgettable thing to settle in with after you spend Thanksgiving in the kitchen and Black Friday setting up that tree and/or starting to shop. With so much holiday stress on the horizon, 'tis the season for snowy movies after all.

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Blu-ray Review: Days of Thunder (1990)

Cruising onto Blu-ray on
12/30/08

Much has been written about the big budget blockbusters of the 1980s with particular attention being given to super producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer along with one of the decade's biggest stars, Mr. Tom Cruise. On one hand, they were dubbed "high concept" films that repackaged gay culture's "conflation of fashion, movies, disco, and advertising" for straight audiences which "were star vehicles comprised of little more than a series of movie moments set to a pounding score," by author Peter Biskind in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (pg. 494). On another, they were simply attributed with raising "formula films to a science" by Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers. Yet, whichever way you slice it, the bottom line is they knew how to capture an audience.

Ultimately it was this science which was analyzed by Roger Ebert in his witty and surprisingly highly complimentary review of Days of Thunder as a quintessential "Tom Cruise Picture," which blends together "most of the same elements that worked in 'Top Gun,' 'The Color of Money' and 'Cocktail'" as the critic describes this set-up with numerical and alphabetical labeling step-by-step along the way.

Of course, for brevity sake, the main man for this was Travers who wrote it best in that you take "the producers' top gun, Tom Cruise-- mix in fast planes, bikes, cars, or anything that makes a deafening noise, add a sexy woman, a few fights, a few laughs, a rock soundtrack (flashdance, what a feeling), and presto, you've got a critic-proof blockbuster."

Hoping to cash in on even a fraction of the astronomical success experienced by the producers, director Tony Scott and star Tom Cruise with the one of the decade's oft-quoted and most definitive films-- Top Gun-- Cruise used his own interest in automobile racing as fodder for this tale of an impulsive, young and wild, naturally gifted racer who learns that you can't simply take the fast lane to NASCAR victory.

Collaborating with Chinatown screenwriter Robert Towne whose antihero pictures of the '70s which as he shared were "about revealing the disparity between what the country said it was, and what the filmmakers perceived it to be," had left audiences with an appetite for "steroided-out superheroes... [where characters] would re-fight the Vietnam war, and win... [and ultimately where we] needed a fantasy where [our country] was not impotent, where it was as strong as Arnold, as invulnerable as Robocop," (Towne as quoted by Biskind, 495).

And of course, the ideal thing about Tom Cruise was that as handsome as he was and still is with that instant charm, insanely appealing smile, and conversational ease-- he offered us a superman we not only believed in but felt that we would actually be friends with, date, or with the right dentist and plastic surgeon could possibly be ourselves-- of course, without all that wacky Scientology nonsense.

On the surface, it's fairly easy to label-- as countless critics and audience members have-- Days of Thunder as simply "Top Gun in a car." This is especially the case considering the similarities in roles as we have Nicole Kidman filling in for Kelly McGillis (and taking over for Mimi Rogers as Cruise's wife in real life), his eventual buddy Michael Rooker filling in for Anthony Edwards' Goose, the shady villain Cary Elwes trying to fill the homoerotic shoes of Val Kilmer who repeatedly bumps Cruise's car instead of delivering that creepy line about being his wingman along with Randy Quaid and Robert Duvall taking the spot of his Gun mentor Tom Skerritt.

Although they were apparently sizzling off-screen, the noticeable lack of chemistry between the very young and poorly written female brain surgeon character played by Nicole Kidman and Cruise's impetuous, temper-ridden, Peter Pan like driver Colt Trickle (dig that phallic name that of course calls attention to his ahem... stick shift) is a major detraction from the film but the romances in the Simpson and Bruckheimer blockbusters were never the highlight. For they packed so much "bromance" in them that in the end they're all about male bonding and brotherly love.

Duvall has some terrific scenes with Cruise as his racing team leader and stock car designer which finds him as that venerable older and wiser worldly enigma we first were introduced to with Cruise in Martin Scorsese's great Paul Newman and Cruise film, The Color of Money.

As I'm completely out of my element in the world of racing, I was oblivious to the amount of factual overlapping and ESPN personalities and NASCAR drivers involved in the film shoot but was especially fascinated to learn more about the oft-cited inspirations for the main leads including the late Tim Richmond (for Cruise's Trickle), Harry Hyde (Duvall), Rick Hendrick (Quaid), Dale Earnhardt (Rooker) and Rusty Wallace (Elwes).

Initially released as a thunderous summer blockbuster in late June of 1990, it's since developed a steady following of Cruise and racing enthusiasts, despite its inferiority to many of the actor's other films of that particular era. Moreover, it perhaps gained even greater interest after Will Ferrell and Adam McKay lampooned the world of racing in their hilarious take Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby which shares numerous plot-points, the "slingshot" technique, and even costar John C. Reilly in common with Thunder.

Recently released onto Blu-ray by Paramount with zero bonus features, I was prepared to be blown away by the roar of the engine of the Oscar nominated sound and speed of the cinematography yet was extremely unimpressed by the technical quality of the transfer which seemed on par with the DVD release. Perhaps in its next Blu release, it won't be as rushed as Cole Trickle always was and the studio will deliver a more solid digital transfer, but overall, the look of the film was surprisingly grainy with poor flesh tones, lackluster special effects (comparatively speaking for the Blu-ray format) and negligible difference from watching it on cable or DVD.

While ultimately, the need for speed to get Cruise's biggest hits to new owners of Blu-ray players this holiday season probably prompted its rush for a post-Christmas and Hanukkah December 30 release when gift cards will be burning a hole in men's wallets probably, I'd take a cue from the tried and true worldly Cruise mentors like Newman and Duvall that you should hold off and slow down, as hopefully better things will come to those who wait. Plus, unlike Cruise who got busted for going 85 in a 55 zone while working on Thunder, you'll be able to avoid a senseless speeding ticket.

The Name is Cruise, Tom Cruise
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