Ed's Review Dot Com

The Jim Henson Company, Lifetime,

Mary Steenburgen, Jay Harrington, Genevieve Buechner, Graham Verchere, Reese Alexander, Ludacris

Ron Emmerson (Jay Harrington) and his two children (Genevieve Buechner, Graham Verchere) are off to visit Aunt Cly (Mary Steenburgen) in her home near the forest in Turkey Hollow. Much to the kid’s chagrin, there is no technology there, so their tablets and cell phones are basically useless, the children try to make the best of their visit. But when they hear the legend of the Howling Hoodoo, and how their Uncle believed in this monster, the kids decide to try to find it and prove their Uncle was correct. Unfortunately the children discover more than they bargained for.

This holiday story from Disney who now owns Jim Henson is full of odd looking characters like all Jim Henson stories. It is really a kids show, but it’s one that the whole family can enjoy together. There is action and suspense, a great villain, and some wicked but bumbling henchmen. It’s a great holiday story full of fun with action and suspense. But as in all great stories, especially holiday stories, good and truth triumph after all. This is a new movie for 2015 that is quite out of the ordinary. More of a fairy tale with magic and mystery, this is a lot like some of the great classic stories from bygone days. This is one you can watch with the kids, and so keep an eye out for it on Lifetime who brought it to us. Who would have thought that Jim Henson could bring us such a magical adventure this many years after he was gone. Disney has done a good job of keeping his vision alive. This is one of the must see films of the season.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Columbia Pictures, LStar Capital, Point Grey Pictures,

James Franco, Seth Rogen, Lizzy Caplan, Randall Park, Diana Bang, Timothy Simons, Reese Alexander, James Yi

Dave Skylark (James Franco) is a tabloid news show host, with Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogen) as his producer. When the find out North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is a fan of the show, they score the interview of a lifetime when they are invited to North Korea to shoot the interview. But the CIA tracks them down with an operation to assassinate the dictator during the interview. Naturally, with these two, everything goes wrong and they’re lucky to get out at all.

This is the film that garnered all the attention, mostly of the wrong kind, due to the announcement of the hacking scandal at Sony and the subsequent threats from the North Koreans and the cancellation, the a limited release on Christmas Day. None of that really matters much, but it has to be considered in the story of the movie, if not the movie itself. This is a James Franco/Seth Rogan comedy, so it’s pretty silly with potty jokes and sexy sight gags throughout. It’s like it’s put together by fourteen year olds, or perhaps Howard Stern? It’s a lot like his humor. But knowing it’s that genre going in makes it easier to watch. You have to go into this expecting juvenile bathroom humor to start with. As far as the huge scandal, I’m not paranoid enough to say it was all thought up to promote the film, although I feel pretty sure this wouldn’t have been a very big film had it come out without all the media attention, so that was a blessing of sorts for them. But that doesn’t make up for the price Sony had to pay in the data theft. Still, I’ve never believed for a minute that North Korea actually hacked Sony because of this film. I still think it’s a disgruntled employee or ex-employee who was responsible, and I doubt The Interview had anything at all to do with it. It wasn’t the original focus when the hack came to light, but quickly became the scape goat when it became easy to blame this on a far away dictatorship that we don’t like in the first place. The film is not Shakespeare, that’s for sure, and it’s more like a Leslie Nielsen or Charlie Sheen type slapstick comedy. For the style, and the type of movie, however, it’s not that bad. Some of it is really funny, and it’s fun to jump on the bandwagon and be American and watch a free movie courtesy of Sony. I missed the Christmas day freebie on You Tube, but it’s out on NetFlix streaming now, so if you are interested in what the hubbub is all about, this is a free (if you’re a member of NetFlix anyway, and who isn’t) way to watch it and get up to date. I had to watch this as it’s part of American folk lore now, and I have to see it. I was surprised that it was not that bad, and it was a pleasure watching it. Not nearly as funny as it could have been, but it’s light-hearted tom foolery for 90 minutes or so and why wouldn’t you watch it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog