Thursday, December 3, 2020

Downrange/The Christmas Chronicles 2

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In case you haven’t seen the intro from my entry dated 1/26/19 (it’s in my archives whenever you want to read it), I’m no longer going to review every single movie I see.  I’m going to review one, with the occasional bonus, and just give ratings for the rest from now on (unless I decide to pick it up again in the future).  You can always ask me why I gave the ratings for the films without reviews though (via comments or the e-mail addresses under the ‘About Me’ section).
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Downrange                                                                 OK/G
This was recently released on DVD but originally released at least 2 years ago and is (was) a Shudder exclusive.  It was directed by Japanese filmmaker, Ryûhei Kitamura, who also gave us Versus, The Midnight Meat Train, and a segment in Nightmare Cinema.  It involves a group of people (3 men, 3 women) driving on a desolate road in (I’m assuming) California before one of their tires is shot by a gunman hiding in a tree nearby.  They then become sitting ducks as they’re periodically shot at while trying to hide the best they can (mainly behind the car).  The use of a single location does actually end up working, it does get violent more than enough times, and I do want to recommend it solely on the fact it’s generally a brutal film with no happy ending, but it does overstay its welcome a bit at almost 90-minutes (which is why I’m not giving it a strictly G rating).  12/1/2020

The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two                         OK
The first one was a decent holiday film released 2 years ago on Netflix (you can read my review for it in the archives---www.abcreviewarchive.blogspot.com---and this sequel is also available on the streaming platform).  Chris Columbus directed as well as produced (the first time he only produced), he also being behind the holiday classics, Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, as well as the original Adventures in Babysitting and Mrs. Doubtfire, among others.  The same family returns, as well as Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn as Mr. and Mrs. Claus, in addition to more characters (as is common in many sequels).  This time, much like the first time (although this one has a different feel to it), something happens that might stop Christmas from coming and some of the characters must work to overcome this hindrance.  It may not necessarily be an unnecessary sequel, and it did manage to avoid being super corny (although it may have come across that way at times), but it still suffers from sequel-itis, namely, not as good as its predecessor and likely forgettable.  Still not that bad for a sequel though, especially a Netflix movie.  11/29/2020

Other movies and TV show(s) I’ve seen and their ratings (see above):

Amulet  >>>EH

The Holiday Movies that Made Us
            Ep. 1 (Elf)  >>>OK
            Ep. 2 (The Nightmare Before Christmas)   >>>G
                        (Netflix)

---Sean O.
12/3/2020

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