Bikebookbread
Life is full of awful, scary, and full of serious things. You know what is refreshing? A bit of mindless watching that is not important or meaningful or relevant. Sometimes we just need silly fun. Stupid, silly, completely unbelievable fun. This ridiculous movie makes my children laugh. And it makes me laugh. It even makes my husband laugh (no mean feat). There are a lot of talented, serious, and celebrated actors in this movie who are not taking themselves seriously. And isn't that refreshing!The show itself is the highlight. So many clichés. Jessica Hynes arriving on the stage sitting in a flying wreath as the child singing sensation who's never moved on... The bleak, Dickensian number... The important classical piece... the totally awful rap number... and my favorite, "All I Want is Christmas Stuff". HAHAHAHAHA. And of course, TWO David Tennants.Don't be a Scrooge. Have some fun.
msalway-243-27914
I probably don't quite fit the bill for this film: single 30-year-old male, yet I really enjoyed this movie. I started off thinking "this is a bit poor" but I gave it a chance and in the end, I was pleasantly surprised. The original music I thought was well-written. It's a little bit cliché in places but if you go in not expecting much then you will be pleasantly surprised. The child actors are for the most part brilliant and the dynamic between Wooton and Tennant never loses its original appeal. On paper, the film should get a 5/10 if you were to take the constituent parts and break them all down, plot, script, budget, etc., but I think the film actually surpasses that with what they managed to get out of it. It's even uplifting and pretty entertaining throughout. You won't be thinking "God I want this to end." The humour is very much along the lines of a Richard Curtis film but for kids. It's not laugh-out-loud, but it's entertaining. It's not at all patronising. It's suitable for ages 5 and above, and of course adults :-) I give this film an 8/10.
ihopetherespudding
I saw this on Wednesday on a slightly sceptical note,having seen the Daily Mail's review for it but as I really liked the first one,I was willing to give it a go. Fortunately for me,the tickets were free so the only thing I wasted was time. Just as a summary, it was bad. How bad? Well,my sister had to revert to texting on her mobile,something she'd never do at a film. First of all,let me say the good things about this film. The first 20 minutes are fairly entertaining, the performances are decent enough and the songs aren't half bad albeit the fact that most of them are forgettable. Where this lacks is the charm and how much it drags. I hate films that drag and you end up questioning how long is the said film exactly. The last film to do that to me was Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2:Rodrick Rules. As for the charm aspect,there is little to no charm. Remember the little ginger kid and the one with the hat? Yeah,they're still in it but they've grown up slightly and have been replaced by a three year old and a chubby kid wearing a donkey outfit. And the ending drags and is also really predictable. So that's my review. Would I recommend it? Probably not but if you have little kids with you and have seen everything else, go see it. If not,there's plenty of newly released dvds to choose from. Just rent them and buy some popcorn.
FlashCallahan
Having never seen the first movie, I had no idea what to expect. I had no I tension of seeing this, because the the trailer looked awful, but my daughter is in charge so I had no choice.And while it's not the best film going, and it's about fifteen minutes too long, it was diverting and mildly amusing at times.Tennent plays the new teacher, who carries around a half heart picture of his twin, and whose wife is heavily pregnant. When he arrives at the school, his class are already preparing for the song for Christmas competition, which Mr Poppy is eager to do....So the film is basically a mix of road trip, and the X factor, with a lot of cute kids singing pretty awful songs, but hey,it's a Christmas movie, so it's heart is in the right place.If you can get past the fact that a lot of the characters would get into trouble by the police for kidnapping, baby snatching, leaving kids behind and not giving it a second thought and several other crimes, it's quite endearing stuff.Tennent is good in his role, but he's playing second fiddle to the guy who plays Mr Poppy. And believe me, he's the marmite of acting, you either love him or hate him, and thankfully, I tolerated the idiot, because he had a heart of gold really.So all in all, it's predictable stuff, almost verging on pantomime in some instants, the ending is what you would expect, child birth in a stable in full view of children did surprise me though.But the fact that I enjoyed it more than I thought I would surprised me the most.A pleasant, totally inoffensive family movie, and those are rare....
AD
