Ed's Review Dot Com

Leif Films,

Jesse Metcalfe, Fiona Gubelmann

Eric Redford (Jesse metcalfe) is a well known author of books about the bachelor lifestyle. His aunt contacts him just before Christmas to let him know that his niece and nephew are on their way for a short visit as their parents are out of the country and his Aunt is suffering from the flu and can’t take care of them. The kids are a handful, and way out of his wheelhouse, and things look bleak as the days stretch on and he is not ready or willing to Christmas up his life. Fortunately, two doors down, April Stewart (Fiona Gubelmann) lives who is a huge fan of Christmas and falls for the children and agrees to help him out. As the days go on, Eric begins to enjoy the excitement that the holidays brings. As the kids grown on him he finds that he is also interested to look closer at April as well, though she is not a fan of the nature of his writing. When the family all show up on Christmas, things all come to a head, and all the secrets and misunderstandings come to light.

Another new film for this Christmas with a fun cast, and another Scrooge like transformation. But unlike others, it’s not an 180 degree turn that is far beyond inevitability. Jesse Metcalfe does a really good job playing a real life character who is not a cardboard cutout but expresses real emotions, and Fiona is bubbly and charming as a lover of the holidays, but also has a very serious side to her that makes her seem much more real life than many of these types of characters. No one here is one sided, and that’s a very good thing. The depth of the characters is what adds so much to this film, and that is one major reason why I enjoyed it more than most. I think they did a really good job handling the subject and it was quite a refreshing holiday film in my opinion. Good job, this one is pretty good.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

RKO Pictures, Foresight Unlimited

Jesse Metcalfe, Amber Tamblyn, Michael Douglas

This film is available on “Watch Instantly” on Netflix.  This is one of my favorite genres, the courtroom drama.   A young reporter just knows that the DA is falsifying evidence so that he NEVER loses a murder case.  So to try to prove it, this nut decides to frame himself in a murder case to prove that he’s falsifying evidence.  Gee, how could that go wrong?

People either love this or hate it.  I find myself somewhere in between.  I guess it’s because I love courtroom dramas, and the fact that there are some really big holes in the story are not really that important.  If you ride it out and ignore the stupid things that nit-pickers like to fuss about, the story is kind of fun.

It’s low budget, and I’m not sure how they got Michael Douglas to do it.  He must be friends with the director, and he didn’t really have much to do.   But they are a few twists and turns.   Oh, and I guess I should mention this is a remake of at 1956 film by the same name.  I haven’t seen that one, but I hear it shows up on Turner Classic Movies once in a while.  I’ll have to keep an eye out for it.

So the point of the movie isn’t as some think, the value of direct versus circumstancial evidence.  The point is more about false evidence.  But it’s not really about that.  Twists and turns happen and for a while you’re not sure what’s up anymore.  I rated this movie in the middle, as I enjoyed the plot twists and the courtroom antics,  and the car chase wasn’t so bad either.  But it’s not a great movie either.  It could have been paced a bit better.  All in all though, I’m glad I slipped this into my “instant” queue.   The price was right!