It’s been a long time since I’ve done my movie reviews. I know this was the whole reason for my place on this site in the first place. For those of you who are wondering why this stopped so suddenly, it was because I was burnt out in trying to formulate movie reviews for every movie I watched. Also I figured that if I was to give descriptions on movies, then it would defeat the purpose of anyone watching them if they haven’t seen them before. However, the biggest reason I decided to retire the movie reviews was because I felt like watching movies turned into a chore more than a relaxing pastime. It was getting to a point where I was dreading watching new movies with the knowledge that I would have to formulate reviews on them and since I usually only watch movies at night, I found myself struggling to do so when I’m really tired and therefore I would have to decide if I wanted to wait until the next day which would in turn make my forget what I would have written due to not completing it right away, ETC. For the longest time, I thought this would be a thing of the past but I’ve learned that just like most things in life, this just needed a change. So with this in mind, I have decided to bring back the movie reviews with a change in the format in terms of how I do them. From this point on, I will not be giving descriptions on the movies themselves. If people want to watch them, of course they are free to do so but rather I will discuss premises of movies, (good and bad,) which I can relate to in my own life. Discussions of movies will be good and bad depending on how relatable the character’s situations in the movie are to my current situation. My final review of these movies will depend on how the situation made me feel. Whether I was able to relate in a good way or a bad way. This will also determine whether the movie in question is recommended and should be watched again, (at least in my mind.) For example, movies that give off bad vibes to me and mirror a bad situation presently happening to me and/or my family at that time will not be recommended. Certain movies will be reviewed on their own while others will be reviewed together in situations where more than one movie made me feel the same way. To start this new format, I will be discussing multiple movies that give me a bit of both good vibes and bad. Given the time of year, these will be Christmas movies.

You know, they say that Christmas is the most wonderful time of year. For most people, this is the case , (myself included.) I love this time of year. I love the decorations and the lead up to Christmas itself. There’s a lot more desire to shop for friends and family and one thing that I think is great is walking through malls and stores in general. Other times of year, this gets on my nerves for financial reasons. This is why I think most people dread the holiday. It puts a lot of strain on people’s wallets, (once again myself included.) However, if you were to ask me if it was worth it, I would say yes in a heartbeat as I am in the mindset that you can never do too much to make the holidays special. Another thing I love about the holiday is that characters such as Santa Claus and even the Grinch have made appearances at the mall. I have wasted no time in getting my pictures taken with both of these characters and I even have my picture with Santa on my wall while I have my picture with the grinch on my desk in a frame. Even as a 35 year old man, I will never listen to anyone who tells me I’m too old to get my picture done or that characters such as the Grinch or Santa are meant for little kids. The fact is that it only happens once a year and it’s supposed to be special. Anyway, on a personal level, the main reason I love this holiday is because people generally tend to be in a better mood and I believe that things that usually stress me out throughout the year, particularly the need to pay bills upon receiving my cheque, are put on the back burner as they are overshadowed by the holiday. I feel like I’m in too good of a mood to let those things bother me at least until after Christmas. Now as upbeat as I usually am leading up to Christmas, everything changes when boxing day comes around because I get the feeling that things will temporarily go back to normal until next year. In most cases, I will look around at my decorations which up until that point had brought me joy and come to the realization that for another year, they are essentially useless. I get depressed when I look back and remember all the fun me and my family had leading up to Christmas, (attending Christmas parties, being together,) ETC and this will generally last until after new Year’s day when enough time has passed for me to move on. However, I will not cease in watching Christmas movies until after New Year’s as I have made it my mission to count the week between Christmas and New Year’s as a holiday in an attempt to combat the post Christmas depression. During this time, I will continue to observe Christmas by watching Christmas movies, playing holiday music and eating more than I should eat while my Christmas decorations remain up until about the 2nd or 3rd of January. I also make it a point to consistently stay up past midnight, (which is something I do throughout the year as well,) on New Year’s Eve.

As for when I start putting up my decorations for Christmas and even start to think about it, well, that’s a whole different story. I’m going to call myself the anti grinch. This is because initial holiday thoughts usually begin around my birthday which is in the summer. If I could put my tree up even the day after my birthday, I would but this is something that my mother would not allow. Despite this, with each passing day anticipation towards Christmas grows as does the anxiety of me wanting to shop and put my decorations up despite it not even being December yet. In most cases, Halloween hasn’t even passed yet when I work up the desire to start celebrating for Christmas. As I said before, mom has put a stop to this. The day after Halloween when stores start putting out Christmas stuff is when I’m at my worst with this. If November 2nd comes around and my tree is not up yet, it’s a problem that grows with each day after that date where my house has yet to be decorated. I know some people who wait until midway through November and sometimes even into December to start their Christmas shopping and put their tree up. I frown upon those people and even question if they celebrate or even care about the holiday as much as I do. Unfortunately, my mother falls into that category of people who wait until the last minute to start observing what could also even be considered to be the birth of our lord and savior.

Mom and I have since reached a compromise as it relates to when I should put my tree up. While it would never be as early as the day after my birthday or before Halloween, we have come to an agreement where my tree can be put up and decorated on the first of November which I have agreed to on the condition that mom or whoever is tasked with putting it up, (I cannot do this on my own due to my disability,) follows through with their end of the bargain and ensure that November 2nd would not go by without my tree having been put up and fully decorated. I have been able to follow this new routine this year and I’ve had my tree up since November 1st of this year.

So this was just an overview of how much I like Christmas. I know I may have gotten off topic but this ties into the reviews of my movies. You may be asking yourselves how this ties in with the reviews of my movies. Well, the answer is simple. It’s because for all I love Christmas and decorating, ETC, there is one aspect of this holiday that makes me feel very uneasy. It’s the simple of question of what is Christmas? For that matter, what is the purpose of it? The point of any Christmas is to spend time with family and friends. This is what our lord and savior wanted for his birthday. Now I have great family and friends who are willing to spend Christmas with me every year. The problem is that there will come a year that they won’t be able to. At the time of this writing, I’m a 35 year old man who has lived alone albeit with support from staff where I live and mom among other members of my family. I’m a single guy at the time of this writing so around this time of year, I rely heavily on my mother, brothers, and friends to spend the holidays with me fearing that their inability to do so will result in me spending it alone due to my single status. In my mind, this would label me a loser as I feel as though the only reason anybody should be alone on Christmas is if they are criminals and people who don’t deserve recognition from their loved ones. A couple of years before I moved out on my own, mom and I made a pact that no matter how old I got, we would always spend Christmas together. This is something she promised me and I dare say that I would not have moved out on my own willingly if she failed to agree to this. Each year since i moved out, the same formula and timeline would occur. The end of my birthday would be the start of my Christmas planning among numerous requests to put my tree up long before it’s time. The repeated reminders that Christmas is to come gets on mom’s nerves as well as everybody else’s. This even gets to a point in some cases, (it did this year,) where I take leave of my senses and feel like the month of December prior to the 25th should just be devoted to Christmas and that all non Christmas themed aspects should be overlooked. An instance of this occurred when mom announced that she would return from her trip on December 3rd of this year. This brought about the comment from me which stated, “So you’re going to miss Christmas? Are you this desperate to go on the trip?” I made the comment not realizing that Christmas was just the 25th of the month. This comment got me in trouble with mom. This is not the only instance where something not related to Christmas has occurred within the weeks of December 1st to the 25th. As a matter of fact, typically I will be less inclined to see December as a month where I need to follow my routines like I would any other month. In the past, I have disputed paying my bills, taking public transit anywhere, and going to doctor’s appointments if they fall in the month of December. An example of this would be when I had a sleep study booked on the 9th of December, (I think this was last year or the year before,) which the doctor and mom both agreed that I needed. However, as I believed I would die in my sleep during the study, I took it upon myself to cancel the scheduled appt behind mom’s back after I had been on a waiting list for an appointment since the year prior. When asked by the doctor why I needed to cancel, I simply said that it was because I didn’t want to miss Christmas or die before it. The doctor replied by saying I was being ridiculous and that it was standard procedure. I don’t remember what I said in response but it was some type of sarcastic comment. I think I said something to the effect of “You know I would rather get run over by a reindeer than put my life in danger this close to Christmas.” The doctor replied by saying I was being stupid, (apologizing for saying it prior to making the comment.) Her exact words were, “Sir I’m sorry but you’re acting stupid.” At this point, mom joined the call. She was initially mad at the doctor for making the comment until the doctor explained what had happened. Mom got really angry at me and sided with the doctor. “You need to remember that Christmas or not, December is still a month on the calendar and that things will happen. I don’t believe you cancelled your appt. Do you know how long we had to wait to get it for you?” This was mom’s reply.

So now that we’ve established how I feel about the holidays, I can talk about the movie. Everything I just mentioned ties in with the premise of these movies I want to discuss. These are two movies that aren’t completely horrible but rub me in the wrong way. I see myself as Buddy the Elf from the movie as it relates to how I feel about the holiday. I have all these expectations that Christmas will be fun but year after year things tend to happen which in my mind put the status of Christmas in question. This brings about the premise of the two movies I want to discuss.

1. Surviving Christmas (2004)
2. Christmas With The Kranks (2004)

As previously stated, on the surface, neither of these films are horrible. However, each of them presents a situation where the celebration of Christmas, either alone or at all, is in danger of not occurring. Surviving Christmas is the least recommended of the two movies as it depicts a person who has to resort to basically intruding on a family who he doesn’t know to be able to celebrate the holidays with someone only for that family to rightfully be annoyed by his presence as he is a complete stranger. At various points through the film, I got depressed especially during the scenes prior to the family taking to him. At the beginning of the film, he is shown to have no family or significant other despite having money. But money can’t buy everything. I’ve always said that anybody can have all the money in the world but family is more important than that. How good is having money if you don’t have love? Ok so maybe some people may not have family to celebrate with which can be caused by death or some other situation but at the very least, they should have a significant other to spend it with. To quote Cindy Lou from the Grinch, nobody should be alone on Christmas. I feel like this movie gave me bad vibes as it essentially confirmed my fears of one year having to face the reality of being alone on Christmas. As it stands now, I already fear that I will be alone every year and this film just basically confirms that. What’s going to happen to me when mom dies? Who am I going to spend Christmas with then? What if I’m still single at this point? Will I then be branded a loser only to sit around an feel sorry for myself as I realize that others are gathered with the ones they love and enjoying themselves? All of these are questions I asked myself when watching this film and with mom’s health being of the utmost concern, I fear that this may become a reality a lot sooner than I want it to. This is a movie with a character that I don’t ever want to relate to but I will unfortunately have to do so one day. As good of a movie as this was, that fact makes it one that I would not recommend.

Christmas with the Kranks was a good enough movie for it’s time. It was released in a year where I was still living with mom and my brothers and long before mom’s health crisis. This was during a time when celebrating Christmas was special as we were still young. The character’s situations didn’t really connect to me at all. Having said all of this, I did not see this film until years after it’s release until I moved out on my own. As previously stated, I started to feel this way about Christmas only after I moved out. This film depicts a man who plots to skip the holidays due to an abundance of money having been spent in years past where he decides to go on a trip instead of celebrating the holiday. For whatever reason, fights ensue with his neighbours when they hear of this. Now even though this movie rubs me the wrong way, I can sympathize with his wish not to have it as well as his request that everybody mind their own business. At the same time though, I fear that one year, maybe mom won’t want to celebrate Christmas in favour of doing something on her own. Similarly, she could use the same reasoning as he basically did in the movie for not celebrating it….his daughter isn’t home and is grown up. Well I have since grown up myself so the same reason could be used for mom not wanting to celebrate it either. Like most movies, things happen throughout and eventually, well he has a change of heart, (I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t seen it,) but he did come very close to boycotting the holiday all together. Throughout this movie, I began to wonder where I would be if mom decided to skip Christmas and what would happen to me if she did. Would I be labelled a loser for being the one guy amongst millions who doesn’t have somebody to celebrate with? Would I be able to handle that? So far, the answer has been no but as mentioned previously, there will definitely come a year where I may have to. I know this movie has a happy ending but it reminds me of that fact. I will say this again. As far as I’m concerned, Christmas should be spent with family no matter who you are or what your situation is.

The fact is that these movies strike a nerve with me despite not being bad movies. Therefore, Christmas with the Kranks and surviving Christmas would not be recommended by me. But please say tuned as I attempt to reveal movies that are good.

It’s great to be back doing this!

By Jefferson Bert