A Christmas Story (1983) Review

December 6, 2022December 20, 2022 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

A Christmas Story is far from a classic that I grew up with but over seas in the USA this is considered by many one of the most important and special holiday films by many people, the film is often played on a loop during Christmas Eve Television hours and to this day is still one of the most commercialised holiday films in the United States.

The film was based on an extract of the book “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash” by radio comedian Jean Shepard, Shepard became well known for telling slightly fictionalised story’s from his childhood during 1960’s radio programmes.

One of these programmes discussed a boy getting his tongue stuck to a flagpole this inspired Bob Clark to write and direct the film with a similar moment of a boy Flick getting his tongue stuck to a flagpole becoming one of its most memorable scenes.

The film took place during the late 1940’s and focused on a young boy named Ralphie who is desperately trying to convince his parents and even Santa to get him the brand new Red Ryder BB Gun but everyone tells him “You’ll shoot your eye out kid”.

I think the movie holds such an impact because it is really relatable and nostalgic to a lot of viewers, it can connect with kids who really want that one present and as adults we remember that childhood desperation of getting the gift we wanted, personally I remember day dreaming over the PS2, the Xbox 360 a Birdhouse Skateboard and a puppy, the Christmas day we got our first dog is one of the best memories I ever had, my parents never wanted a dog and put off the idea for years so when he turned up on Christmas Day we were all crying, years of begging paid off and I got my late Labrador Alfie and he was my Red Ryder BB Gun.

The casting for the film is really great but I think props need to be given to the cast who play Ralphie and his family they give a really heartfelt and realistic portrayal of a family which doesn’t rely on stereotypical character types but in fact feels like the average household who will be watching the film.

I think everyone can relate to Ralphie we have all wanted our dream present at one point and in ways we can relate to the parents as adults with the struggles of allowing a dangerous toy into their home and also having to balance the costs and stresses of the holidays while taking care of two young boys, the fussy eating from little brother Randy is also a very real issue for a lot of children and parents.

Some of my favourite scenes in the movie also relate back to moments in my life from being terrified of dodgy mall Santa’s and displaying crappy awards and prizes that I never really cared about but kept because its free and of course getting my tongue stuck on a pole which I recall being extremely painful btw and I do not recommend.

I’m finding it difficult to deep dive too much into this film because I never grew up with it and while it connects with me in someways it has never made it into my regular Christmas movie marathon, I suppose I have never really cared much for a Christmas Story even though I respect it for a lot of it’s qualities and its strange because there isn’t much I dislike about the film if I had to be pick something the day dream segments can be a little bit cringe worthy but again they are very memorable moments in the movie

A Christmas Story may not be one of my personals favourite holiday movies but for a lot of people this is an essential part of the holidays which shouldn’t be missed and if you get the chance why not give it a try to see if you feel the same, the film has left a cultural impact for a reason and is overall a very good film which is well worth a viewing even if it is only once.

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From up on Poppy Hill (2011) Review

December 19, 2019December 22, 2019 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

From up on Poppy Hill is a Drama film that was directed by Goro Miyazaki with the film based on a screen play written by his father Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa.

Umi is a young girl who attends a boarding school called Coquelicot Manor in Japan. Here she meets Shun a young male student after he ends up in the school newspaper after committing to a Dare Devil stunt.

Umi and Shun become very close throughout the film end work together to try and convince the chairman of the boarding school to not demolish it but the main mystery is whether they are actually lost siblings as both of them have the same photograph of a man who they believe to be there father.

I will be honest and say that I have never been too fond of this film, I have always found it to be a little bit boring and the story feels like a plot that I have seen a thousand times before, however the voice acting is probably some of the best out of all the Ghibli movies, A lot of effort and heart went into all of these performances and while the only recognisable name may be Jamie- Lee- Curtis everyone did a fantastic job and its the passion in the voice work that I think makes the film stand out among others.

From up on Poppy Hill will probably never be a film that I would say needs to be seen but it has a lot of heart and some amazing voice work, I wish the plot had a little bit more to it but overall I would say that one is just ok at best.

I hope you enjoyed this review of From up on Poppy Hill

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My Neighbour Totoro 1988 Review

December 4, 2019December 3, 2019 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

My Neighbour Totoro has become quite an iconic film over the past few years, it has become so popular that it became the logo for Studio Ghibli

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, My Neighbour Totoro’s story is that of a family who have decided to move to a new home they have moved to a fairly quiet location in the countryside, I imagine that they moved here to live a peaceful life style but little did they know that where they have moved to is also a hangout for many different spirits.

In any other film this would usually lead to a scary or spooky movie but surprisingly in this film the spirits are just there and they don’t seem to alarm or bother anyone in the family.

As you may have guessed one of the neighbouring spirits is the huge Totoro who has a surprising resemblance to the Pokemon Snorlax.

The two girls Mei and Satsuki discover Totoro and the entire film is essentially them interacting with him and that’s what sort of makes it so good, Totoro is a very peculiar character as he seems very human he likes to take naps, he catches the bus (well a spirit bus, which also a cat) and in general he doesn’t actually do much, he doesn’t have much dialogue so making him a lovable character is mostly about the pacing of his actions and the animators really nailed this one on the head, yeah Totoro doesn’t do much but he is so well animated that every time he smiles, bounces or yawns its hard not to love him and the timing of these actions are its difficult to explain without me just telling you to watch the movie but if you do will see what I mean.

The family are great in this movie the dad is a hard working individual but he is also seen to be a lot of fun in many scenes of the film but by far the best characters are the two sisters, these girls honestly seem like real sisters in real life the older sister can at times be bossy but caring and the younger sister is excitable, very curious and genuinely quite innocent

Like I said not a lot goes on in this movie there is a climax near the end of the film but its nothing too crazy so don’t get your hopes up.

I’m not huge on the music in this film it’s not bad I just don’t think that its very memorable but the animation is really something special, at times the animation looks similar to every other Studio Ghibli film but every now and again something really cool and interesting will show up, everyone loves Totoro and his character design but personally I don’t think anything can top the cat bus its so bizarre that this movie has a bus that is also a cat but it looks so cool that you just really want to ride it.

My Neighbour Totoro is a special film as its surprisingly brilliant, not a lot goes on in the movie but everything is so well paced and well animated that the entire film is very memorable, the animation and character designs are pretty superb and every character in this film is interesting and likeable, if you ever want to watch a movie that you can chill out too and also appreciate its brilliance then My Neighbour Totoro is the film for you.

Thank you for reading my review of My Neighbour Totoro

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A Carol Christmas (2003) Review

December 22, 2015 ragglefragglereviews1 Comment

Carol is a talk show host who is obsessed with herself and hates anyone who gets in her way, Carol’s bad attitude affects her family and co workers at Christmas time and it isn’t long before she gets a visit from the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, two of these ghosts are played by the late Gary Coleman and everyone’s favorite Star Trek actor William Shatner.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet this is just another version of a Christmas Carol but with a modern day twist.

There really isn’t too much to say about this movie, you’ve seen it all before its just Scrooge which is a concept that I think has been put into film far too many times for it’s own good, don’t get me wrong some versions of a Christmas Carol are excellent (Mickeys Once Upon a Christmas, Scrooged).

This is not by any means a bad film, its just the same old thing we see every year, there are a few things I really like about this version of a Christmas Carol that I find really help it stand out among the others.

The biggest difference is that the antagonist is a woman and I like this its good to see that it’s not just males who are lacking the Christmas Spirit, I also enjoyed the celebrity cameo’s I thought they were well cast and added a good amount of charm to the film.

What I didn’t like was the jokes, a lot of the time they felt forced and not necessary I don’t know why they tried to make this a comedy in the first place, originally due to the title I thought this would have been a parody of a Christmas Carol and I think that would have been great, it would have been a new and fresh idea that could of been really funny if it had good writing.

A Carol Christmas is not the worst version of a Christmas Carol I have ever seen but it’s definitely not the best either.

with 11 out of 12 reviews finished I think it’s time to see what the last Christmas movie review of 2015 will be.

The Final Review is

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Special Delivery (2000) Review

December 20, 2015December 20, 2015 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Lloyd Steadman is a clumsy delivery man for the Little Wings adoption agency, due to unforeseen circumstances Lloyd is the replacement delivery man for the Beck family and it is now his job to deliver the Becks their new son in time for Christmas.

This doesn’t exactly go to plan because Lloyd manages to accidentally switch the real baby with a toy doll, this causes all sorts of complications for the Beck family who with the exception of the husband are surprisingly ok with this and they even invite Lloyd to stay with them for Christmas.

I have to be honest if some idiot lost my Daughter they would most definitely not be staying at my house for Christmas.

I really liked the Husband in this movie I thought his lines and dialogue were perfect for this kind of film, his rage and anger at Lloyd were definitely the best parts of the flick, I hated everyone else though they kept treating the husband like he was the bad guy and this wasn’t just played up to attempt decent comedy, the film portrayed Mr Beck as if he was a horrible person for not wanting to be around Lloyd, his Wife treated the whole situation as if Lloyd simply smashed a mug and brushed the whole thing off.

I was left with so many questions while I was watching this film, why isn’t the entire family angry at Lloyd?, why did Lloyd not immediately get fired?, why didn’t the police get involved? THIS IDIOT LEFT AN INFANT BY ITSELF IN A BUSY AIRPORT last time I checked abandoning a child is against the law.

What also didn’t help this movie was Andy Dick (Lloyd), he was so annoying I just wanted to punch him in the face, his acting was atrocious and it honestly felt like he was just there for the pay cheque, the film is not funny at all, a lot of the comedy relies on the comedic affect of slap stick and its just awful, the jokes are really badly paced and a lot of the time they are either really over the top or extremely unrealistic.

Special Delivery is an ok movie, I wouldn’t recommend watching it but if you do you might like it as a lot of people seem to really enjoy the film, its just not for me.

Thanks for reading my Review of Special Delivery

The next Christmas movie I will review is

you can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

The Christmas Wish (1998) Review

December 17, 2015December 17, 2015 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Business man Will Martin (Neil Patrick Harries) is visiting his Grandmother for her first Christmas since her husband past away, while looking through some of his grandfather’s old journals Will discovers that his Grandfather had a secret woman in his life called Lillian, Will sets out to find this woman in order to help put his Grandmother’s mind at peace but this journey may be much more difficult than he anticipated.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this movie, the plot was very interesting and through out the entire film I was trying to figure out who Lillian was and at times I wasn’t sure if we would even find out, the film was very slow which was its biggest problem because it had this really interesting plot that should have grabbed the attention of the viewer but half the time I was falling asleep due to how badly paced and boring the film was.

Only half of the cast gave an effort to show any enthusiasm at all, most of the actors I found to be either really boring or extremely annoying, the little boy who was obsessed with Dinosaurs did not help at all, I don’t know what it is but for some reason six year old’s are extremely headache inducing on camera, the little boy in this film was almost as annoying as the little boy in The Babadook (if you haven’t seen the Babadook trust me the little boy is the absolute worst).

On a lighter note given all of my complaints its at least a really nice movie which tries to spread what is apparently the meaning of Christmas, I’m actually really surprised that this isn’t aired on TV that often as it’s a really unique and different kind of Christmas movie and even though I complained that the some of the cast are really annoying they wont ruin the film for you this isn’t Jim Carrey stars in the Grinch so you don’t have too much to worry about.

An unknown Christmas film that is probably unknown for a reason, still worth giving this one a shot though.

Thanks for reading my Review of The Christmas Wish

The next Christmas movie I will review is

You can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas (2002) Review

December 10, 2015December 10, 2015 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

It’s Christmas Eve and an evil business woman is going to legally own the Muppet Theater if Kermit and his friends cant raise enough money to pay off the Theater’s loan.

This movie is brilliant and not in the sense that its a perfect movie but more to do with the films premise, for those who are unaware this film is a Muppet’s version of It’s a Wonderful life.

Of course its not as dark and depressing but it does have a lot of charm and originality for what is essentially a remake of an already existing property, the Muppet’s are great as usual and they provide a lot of very funny jokes including some that are purely for the adults.

Whoopi Goldberg plays an amazing God, its so funny to see such a chilled out lord of the universe and who wouldn’t love a God who is a massive fan of Spongebob? (from the movie haha not sure if Whoopi really loves Spongebob)

There are so many references in this film from Steve Irwin to Star Wars, the only reference I didn’t like was the Grinch and that was because instead of choosing to reference the original they chose that terrible Jim Carrey Movie.

I don’t know how they do it,but somehow almost every Muppet movie has a sad song that makes me cry in this case its about Kermit wanting his life back, trust me guys this rivals the goodbye song from Muppet’s Take Manhatten.

It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas is a surprisingly very good film, its not perfect but its nice and that all you really need for a decent family flick, all of the actors, actresses and Muppet’s do a fantastic job and the film is genuinely quite charming.

Do yourself a favor and pick this one up this year.

Thanks for reading my Review of It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas

The next Christmas movie I will review is

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!!!

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Four Christmases (2008) Review

December 4, 2015December 4, 2015 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

They gotta celebrate four Christmases with four families and all in one day.

Four Christmases is about a couple Brad and Kate played by Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon who always lie to their parents and make excuses as to why they cant visit for Christmas every year, unfortunately for them on this particular year they made the excuse that they couldn’t make it because they are doing some charitable work over in Burma when in fact they are actually going on vacation in Fiji, all flights get cancelled due to fog and a news team comes in and interviews them live about how they feel about the holiday being cancelled, of course as you may expect all of the parents see the news report and are very excited because now Brad and Kate can spend christmas with each of the families which is great the only problem is that each of their parents are divorced which means that they will need to fit in visits to all four families on Christmas day.

The movie has a really interesting plot that honestly I have to give praise too as it’s definitely something that could actually happen in real life, I would be surprised if this hadn’t happened to anyone especially given the large number of divorced parents in the world.

What I hate about the movie is everything else first of all it is so obvious that Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon did not want to be in this movie, I don’t think I have ever watched a movie where the actors and actresses have looked so bored and uninterested through out an entire film, Reese Witherspoon did occasionally have fun playing her role a good example would be the bouncy castle scene where she is trying to get back her pregnancy test that had earlier been stolen by a child, the same cannot be said for Vince Vaughn his performance through out the entire movie can be summed up in just two words boring and awkward.

As what is probably expected all of the families are very different and each over play their lifestyles to give off a comedic effect, the families are great and each of them have left me some memorable moments from the film, you got Brad’s angry dad and his abusive kid’s which is the complete opposite to Brads mom who is what most people would call a hippy, Kates mother is played by Mary Steenburgen an award winning actress who has performed in many popular films such as Step Brothers, Elf and Back to the Future 3, Kate’s Mother is dating a Pastor and so to Kate’s surprise shes actually become a christian and Kates dad is just normal

The movie is advertised as a comedy and yet the jokes are just about as childish and cliched as they can get, I didn’t expect much else from this movie given it’s average rating on IMDB but the problem I have is that the film almost does have good Jokes but for some reason it moves on before even executing them, a great example of this is a scene in Brads mum’s house where a kid finds some Marijuana Brownie’s and that’s the joke he doesn’t eat them and it’s never even mentioned again, the kid finding the brownies is not funny but what would of been funny is the affect the Brownies would have had on the kid yet for some reason the movie doesn’t even try to make a joke out of the situation.

Four Christmases was a really disappointing movie, it had a great premise but an awful and effortless execution, the cast was just as boring as the film, the jokes aren’t funny and the entire movie is so predictable that you will know what going to happen before long before it ends.

Thanks for reading my Review of Four Christmases, please comment below if you think I was too harsh and remember this is just my opinion plenty of other people like this movie, I’m just not one of those people.

The next Christmas movie I will review is

You can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

A Goofy Movie (1995) Review

March 6, 2015 ragglefragglereviews4 Comments

A lot of Disney shows from the late 80’s and early 90’s were very well written and this usually resulted in those shows being turned into a movie at some point a classic example is Duck Tales, Duck Tales was an extremely popular cartoon back in the 90’s and it still is very well known today the show its self was about Uncle Scrooge and his three nephews Huey, Louie and Dewey looking for ancient treasures so they can become rich and the movie followed this same premise making it less like a movie and more like an extended episode of the show.

I watched Goof Troop growing up and it was literally about Goofy being a goof ball, his son Max being in High School and the antics of his grumpy neighbour Pete and his crazy family, so I expected the Goof Troop movie to be the same but longer and yeah it has most of that but it also sends a very important message, the importance of family bonding.

The movie is essentially that Max is a Teenager who wants to move on with his life making his own decisions and learning from his own mistakes, but his Dad Goofy doesn’t want to lose his son so he keeps being over protective while at the same time constantly trying be with Max, Max manages to get in a lot of trouble at school while trying to impress a girl and not long after this the principle calls Goofy and this causes him to organise a camping trip for himself and Max so that they can bond, but the problem is that Max is supposed to be going to a party with a girl he really likes.

Obviously the camping trip Causes Max to have to cancel the date which results in him disappointing the girl, this causes Max to lie to the girl telling her that he is going to be on stage at the rock concert that’s being streamed live over television at the party, the rest of the movie is just a road trip where Max and Goofy attempt to bond and at first things don’t go too well because Max is still mad that he has to cancel his date, throughout the movie this slowly changes and both Max and Goofy start to get along more due to them sharing time together during activities that they both enjoy for example Goofy sits through a vehicle stunt show which he doesn’t like and Max visits a yarn museum which he finds boring but his Dad really enjoys.

things seem to be going really well and then both Max and Goofy fight again, which is great because it shows that these things take time and a few days away together is not going to immediately fix what started off as broken relationship, there’s a really well directed scene near the end of the movie where Max is reading the map and has to decide if he wants to tell his Dad to take a left or a right at a junction where left goes to LA and right goes to the camp site this leaves Max in a difficult situation where he needs to decide what’s more important his relationship with the girl he likes or the relationship between himself and his father, this movie is kind of deep which really surprises me considering that this movie is about Goofy.

I think the plot and the message of the movie is brilliant its not often that we get a Disney movie that isn’t talking about some great danger that’s going to happen, or the murder of someone’s parent or how to become a hero but instead shows an issue that is a reality between a lot teenagers and parents and for that alone this movie deserves a gold medal.

The animation is nothing spectacular but I don’t really expect much considering that this is not a Disney Classic and I don’t think it even went into theatres so this doesn’t bother me too much, the best way I can describe it is that the animation is very similar to that of the original show but with a bit more polish, more vibrant colours, added shadows and shading, more artistic detail and it genuinely just looks better.

Goof Troop

A Goofy Movie

I couldn’t really get into any of the musical numbers as they generally just weren’t that interesting and I don’t feel that this movie needed to be a musical because apart from in the final song where Max and Goofy discuss each others true feelings about their relationship none of the songs did anything to progress or benefit the movie, also I kinda wish that more of Pete’s family were in the movie as they are by far my favourite characters from the show and I always felt the Pete and his family were the cause of a lot Goof Troops greatest moments, apart from that this is surprisingly a really good film that spreads a very important message that I believe will benefit both adults and their children.

If you haven’t yet seen A Goofy Movie go give it a shot as it may leave you pleasantly surprised.

Thank you for reading my review of A Goofy Movie

By Padawan

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Anastasia (1997) Review

November 27, 2014May 11, 2016 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

When I was a child I remember visiting my Grandmother and watching a bunch of Animated movies that she had on old VHS tapes, Anastasia just so happens to be one of those movies, as a kid I thought it was amazing and I watched it all of the time but now that I am an adult I haven’t seen the movie in 13 years.

Until now

Was it as good as I remember?

The first thing that caught my eye was that Anastasia was made by Don Bluth who is famous for some of the greatest animated movies of all time such as An American Tail, The Land before time and the Secret of Nimh. I had a strong feeling that Anastasia would be just as amazing as some of his other work especially since I loved the film with a passion when I was a child.

Let me just begin by saying that the animation was incredible, everything in the film was extremely well detailed, the animation moved very smoothly and the use of a mixture of light and dark colours really helped build up the atmosphere for multiple scenes that were shown throughout the movie. The animation blew me away and it can easily compete with the animation of some of the Disney films of the time.

The movies plot was really cool if not a little hard to follow.

A party is being thrown to celebrate 300 years of ruling of the Romanov Family, The Dowager Empress Marie is leaving for Paris and a very young Anastasia is sad that Marie is leaving.

Marie gives Anastasia a music box so that she will always remember her, at this point the films villain Rasputin enters the palace and is immediately told to leave, Rasputin says that he will not stop until the entire Romanov Family are dead.

Rasputin sells his soul so that he has the power to for-fill his dark purpose. With his new Dark powers Rasputin Controls the Civilians of the town to charge the palace, with little choice left the Romanov family flee Russia to find safety.

Anastasia and Marie are saved by a servant boy called Dmitri, Marie and Anastasia are about to board a train.

Marie manages to to board the train but Anastasia does not, they grab eachothers hand but they slip from each other and Anastasia falls unconscious.

We cut to 10 years later and Anastasia is leaving an orphanage to try and find her real family and to learn about herself and her past.

The films plot is really well structured and it allows enough time for the audience to be able to understand and sympathise with all the main characters that are introduced throughout the movie.

The music is really hit and miss with me because I love all of the instrumental music used to help build the atmosphere of certain scenes, its really well conducted and the final result being a combination of Choir and Orchestra is something really beautiful to listen too.

I cant say the same for the voice acting or any of the songs that are performed vocally, all vocal performances seemed really emotionless it felt as if the actors and actresses didn’t really want to be lending their voices to the film and because of this it really makes the whole experience a little boring and hard to watch with the exception of Christopher Lloyd who voices Rasputin because he did a remarkable job voicing the films main antagonist, you could really tell that Christopher Lloyd loved playing this role in the film.

I also did not enjoy the majority of the vocal songs for the exact same reasons as I previously stated again with the exception of the movies villain song which was catchy but I wont be adding it to my I-pod any time soon.

Watching Anastasia again really reminded me of a lot of warm childhood memories but it deeply saddens me that I found so many issues with such an important movie from my past.

I may not have enjoyed it as much as I had hoped that I would, but Anastasia will always be a very important film to me as it helps me remember what it was like being a little kid and visiting my Grandmother and even though my grandmother has not yet passed on, this movie will always be one of my fondest memories of her.

I hope you enjoyed my review of Anastasia

Have you got any films from your childhood which are very dear to you?

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

By Padawan

ragglefragglereviews

MOVIES, VIDEO GAMES, FOOD AND BEVERAGE, ANIME and just about everything else

Tag: Family

A Christmas Story (1983) Review

From up on Poppy Hill (2011) Review

My Neighbour Totoro 1988 Review

A Carol Christmas (2003) Review

Special Delivery (2000) Review

The Christmas Wish (1998) Review

It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas (2002) Review

Four Christmases (2008) Review

A Goofy Movie (1995) Review

Anastasia (1997) Review