Ed's Review Dot Com

Media Pro Six, Mirrorball Films, Moviehouse Entertainment,

David Tennant, Marc Wootton, Jason Watkins, Pam Ferris, Jessica Hynes, Ian McNeice, Joanna Page

The Nativity! clan are back, and St. Bernadette’s has a new teacher, Donald (David Tennant) taking over Paul’s classroom after the near disaster last year. But when word of a big contest coming up with any school allowed to enter, the class wants to do another Nativity concert this year. It’s being held in a big castle far away, and the school can’t afford the journey, but Mr. Poppy (Marc Wootton) naturally convinces Donald that they have to go and they set out on a long road trip to get there. But things don’t go so well as they end up finding an infant as a stowaway, and they end up with a donkey that Mr. Poppy insists is a magic donkey who is perfect to guide them and the baby to the Nativity. Surely it’s a sign. But they risk their lives and limbs, are still late getting there and are disqualified. Not only that, but everyone is out looking for them, and nobody is very happy about them sneaking off to try to complete.

This worthy sequel to the original Nativity! is possibly better than the original. Certainly there’s a lot more action and adventure, and the road trip is a major undertaking. The performance is certainly better and after arriving at the contest you would expect the story to end, but there’s still lots more to go. More action and adventure is not the only improvements. Marc Wootton has a better feel for the Mr. Poppy character and is, in my opinion, even funnier than he was in the first one. The addition of David Tennant was also quite good. He does a terrific job trying to deal with Mr. Poppy’s madness. The performances are excellent, and the show is a lot better than the first one. But it has all the humor that made the original special. Again, the heavy English humour may be off putting for some, but I enjoyed it very much. I have3 heard of a 3rd movie coming out this year, Nativity 3: Dude, where’s my Donkey? This means that they’re keeping the donkey from this film, and bringing back Mr. Poppy and the kids of St. Bernadette’s. But there is a new teacher once again, and hopefully it will be a pleasant as the others. It’s been theatrically released in the UK and Ireland this Christmas (2014) but we’ll probably have to wait for it till next year in the US. But in the meantime, catch the other two, and see if you agree that 2 is even better than the original. Note, Like Nativity! this film is airing Christmas 2014 on UPtv.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Turner Network Television, Hallmark Entertainment

Patrick Stewart, Richard E Grant, Joel Gray, Ian McNeice, Saskia Reeves, Desmond Barrit, Bernard Lloyd, Dominic West

Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly old businessman in 1840’s London.  One Christmas Eve his partner, dead 7 years, arrives to warn him of the error of his ways.  That night 3 ghosts arrive and show Scrooge his past, present, and future selves.

This is a very accurate retelling of the short story by Charles Dickens.  Patrick Stewart is an excellent choice for Scrooge.  I have heard the books on tape version of the story by Patrick and it’s one of my favorites.  Richard E. Grant is also an excellent Bob Cratchit.   The vision and recreation of 1840’s London is awesome.  It looks to me exactly how I would have expected it.  The story is complete and includes a lot of the little details of the story that most retellings omit.  A few of the lines have been changed to modernize the language which I don’t really appreciate, but all in all this one of the very best versions of a Christmas Carol that I have seen, and I think I’ve seen them all!   I would definitely put this one in the top three best versions for sure.  Patrick Stewart is an amazing actor.  I shed a tear as the old Scrooge did all in his power to try to get young Scrooge to run after Belle and get her to come back.  Of course he could not, but the emotion he put out there gets to me every time.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog