Richard has written 60 reviews for films during 2020.
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Home Alone 2: Lost in New York 1992
Everything that hapens in the first film happens again in the second film, except in New York. Pesci and Stern are absolutely, horrifically, brutalised.
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Yogi's First Christmas 1980
Cinematic masterpiece, the greatest Christmas film of all time and probably in fact the greatest film ever made in any genre ever.
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The Muppet Christmas Carol 1992
Michael Caine is the definitive Ebenezer Scrooge and the Great Gonzo is the definitive Charles Dickens.
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Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure 2011
Don't get me wrong, it is absolutely terrible, but at least it brings some proper closure for the best character from the most important movie trilogy of the modern age.
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The Star Wars Holiday Special 1978
There is no doubt that 2020 is the worst year in post-war history, but this is compelling evidence that 1978 was the second worst.
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Monty Python and the Holy Grail 1975
This is the Python on film I've seen the most and despite not having watched it for 20-odd years most of it was still very familiar. here's a heck of a lot packed into its 90 minute run time and it's fair to say the kids were bemused.
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Onward 2020
For a film about magical creatures, made by that most magical of animation studios Pixar, it just didn't feel that magical. Onward is quite a wacky concept when you think about it and I did really enjoy it but I dunno, it was just missing taht little bit of extra pizzazz that you get from the very best Pixar films.
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Hocus Pocus 1993
Disney Channel nonsense that doesn't bear close scrutiny but Bette Midler drags it several rungs up the ladder and Sarah Jessica Parker provides particularly good support.
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Murder on the Orient Express 2017
Aside from a character-establishing preface, this is a pretty traditional and faithful rendering of the Agatha Christie novel. It's fine, the cast is great, it looks good (although the train is very obviously CGI at some points) but I just don't really understand the point of it. The story's been done numerous times before and this adaptation brings little new to the party. To be honest I don't think it's any better than the David Suchet TV version (and he will always be the definitive Poirot anyway).
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X-Men 2000
It's a bit slight with a 100 minute running time (including credits) and as a result there's not a lot of time for relationship development between any of the characters. Some of the action, particularly one-on-one fight scenes, is really quite stilted and the effects are starting to show their age. Also Toad is a really shit supervillain.
But despite all that, X-Men is a lot of fun with a fantastic opening act and of course this film helped usher in the modern age of superhero movies so bonus points for that.
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