Category: Comedy

OH. WHAT. FUN.

2025   Amazon MGM Studios

Rated:  PG-13

Length:  1 hr  47min

Christmas ~ Comedy

Directed by:  Michael Showalter

Starring:  Michelle Pfeiffer, Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Denis Leary, Dominic Sessa, Jason Schwartzman, Eva Longoria, and Joan Chen.

Come For The Presents, Stay For The Baggage!

FROM AMAZON MGM STUDIOS:

Claire Clauster (Michelle Pfeiffer) is the glue that holds her chaotic, lovable family together every holiday season. From perfectly frosted cookies to meticulously wrapped gifts, no one decks the halls quite like Claire. But this year, after planning a special outing for her family, they make a crucial mistake and leave her home alone. Fed up and feeling under appreciated, she sets off on an impromptu adventure of her own. As her family scrambles to find her, Claire discovers the unexpected magic of a Christmas gone off-script.

With a dazzling ensemble cast including Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Denis Leary, Dominic Sessa, Danielle Brooks, Devery Jacobs, Havana Rose Liu, Maude Apatow, Jason Schwartzman, Eva Longoria and Joan Chen, and directed by Michael Showalter, Oh. What. Fun. is a spirited holiday comedy that honors and celebrates every overworked holiday host.

THE MOVIE REVIEW:

Claire Clauster (Michelle Pfeiffer) has a Christmas problem, she feels under-appreciated. Year after year she goes all out, decorating, baking, shopping, planning, cooking, wrapping presents, getting the entire extended family together and keeping them happy and festive. Her husband Nick doesn’t help as much as she would like, but then he is a guy. There is a Best Holiday Mom Contest being held by her favorite TV Talk show hosted by Zazzy Tims. Claire would love nothing more than to be nominated by her children but they are so busy with their lives they forget to nominate her.

As Christmas Eve approaches there are festive fiascos around the house as the family piles in one after another, bringing their own personal dramas with them. Claire also has a long running animosity with the neighbor family next door, the two Mom’s always trying to one up each other during the holidays. The Final straw for Claire comes when the whole family is getting ready to go to a Christmas show in the city. As they are piling into different cars in the rush to go, Claire pops over to her rival neighbor to give her a homemade Christmas goodie bag. With the family all thinking that she is in one of the other cars, they leave Mom Claire behind.

When Claire realizes that her family has left her behind, it was the last straw. She packs a few things as well as some Christmas snacks and heads off in her car. She’s had enough, she is leaving the family. Depressed, frustrated and under-appreciated she hits the road not knowing where she is going. And that’s where the rest of this Festive fiasco takes us, following Claire’s new forlorn, underappreciated Christmas alone and her family’s stark realization that Claire has had enough, packed her bag and hit the road.

As I watched, I couldn’t help but think of Christmas Vacation. I don’t know if it was intentionally paying homage to, or trying to duplicate some of the humorous holiday scenes we all know and love in Christmas Vacation. It was no where near as funny as the classic Christmas Vacation. I feel like it was trying too hard. The names of the characters were a little out there, Eva Langoria as Zazzy Tims? Chloë Grace Moritz brought her girlfriend DJ Sweatpants? Claire’s arch nemesis neighbor Jeanne Wang-Wasserman? Sammy’s girlfriend is named Mae-Bell?

It was alright, a little campy and not as funny as I think they wanted it to be. I think if you are a guy, you are not gonna get it nor like it. If you are a gal, Mom or Grandmother, I think you are going to be right on top of the bandwagon. This Christmas Catastrophe is made for women about women being under-appreciated at the holidays.

There you go!

OH. WHAT. FUN.

Photo by Alisha Wetherill
© Amazon Content Services LLC
Photo by Alisha Wetherill
© Amazon Content Services LLC

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare

2024    Lionsgate

Rated:  R

Length:  2 hrs

Action ~ Comedy ~ War ~ History ~ True Story

Directed By:  Guy Ritchie

Starring:  Henry Cavill, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Henry Golding, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Babs Olusanmokun and Eiza González.

NO RULES. NO REGRETS. JUST VICTORY

Henry Cavill stars as Major Gus March-Phillips who is brought out of Military Prison by Brigadier Colin Gubbins “M” and Ian Fleming late 1941 in England during World War II. He is tasked with heading Operation Postmaster, a last resort mission dreamt up by Winston Churchill, “M” and Ian. An unsanctioned secret operation to go to the Spanish island of Fernando Po in Africa, where the Nazi’s are resupplying their U-boats that are decimating the Royal Navy fleet, and destroy the resupply ships.

Accompanied by Irishman Henry Hayes(Hero Fiennes Tiffin), Freddy “The Buzz” “Frogman” Alvarez(Henry Golding), and “The Danish Hammer” Anders Lassen(Alan Ritchson), they sail around the coast of Africa to La Palma Canary Islands where they storm a Nazi Garrison and extract Geoffrey Appleyard(Alex Pettyfer). They then continue on the Swedish fishing Trawler Maid Of Honor to the Spanish port of Fernando Po to destroy the Nazi resupply ships. A suicide mission fraught with  perils and unexpected twists and turns. They sail between the British Navy ships on one side who will incarcerate them and the Nazi U-boats on the other that will kill them.

This is based on the true story of the first Black Ops before there was such a thing. The beginnings of Agencies like the Navy Seals, CIA and other world agencies that were spawned to do the dirty work under the radar. Gus March-Phillips was the inspiration for James Bond in Ian Flemings novels. Sir Christopher Lee who starred in and was a consultant on numerous James Bond movies, was a member of The Ministry Of Gentlemanly Warfare in it’s early days. He was also second cousin to Ian Fleming.

Cavill delivers his most charismatic performance since The Man from U.N.C.L.E., channeling that mustached grit with Guy Ritchie flair, while his co-stars, like a sharp-shooting Eiza González and the ever-reliable Alan Ritchson, match his energy beat for beat. Christopher Lee’s nod to real history adds gravitas, reminding us these men and women changed the course of history.​

A thrilling blend of fact, legend, and adrenaline-fueled storytelling, this is one of the best True Story war films of recent years. These men and women helped change the course of history. It’s a fantastic story well told and portrayed by all involved in this movie. I love the True Story Movies and I love this one.

A great adventure!

Well done and highly recommended!

Two Thumbs Up!

 

Alex Pettyfer, Alan Ritchson, Henry Cavill, Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Henry Goldin in THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE.
Photo Credit: Dan Smith for Lionsgate.
Courtesy of Lionsgate.

My Secret Santa

2025   Netflix

Rated:  PG

Length:  1 hr  30min

Christmas ~ Comedy ~ Romance

Directed by:  Michael Rohl

Starring:  Alexandra Breckenridge, Ryan Eggold and Tia Mowry.

Single Mom. Double Life.

Taylor Jacobson (Alexandra Breckenridge) is a struggling single Mom who has just been fired from her job at Clotz Cookie Company, right before Christmas. To top that she runs into her landlord who reminds her that she is four months behind on her rent. She then finds out her daughter has been accepted to an elite snowboarding camp at Sun Peaks ski resort which is very expensive. Desperate for cash, the next day she takes her vinyl record collection down to the record store. A customer in the store notices a record by a local band The Screaming Kittens in her collection. When the record store owner offers her a hundred dollars, he insists the local band record is worth a lot more. He then realizes that Taylor is on the cover and used to be the lead singer of The Screaming Kittens.

Matthew Layne (Ryan Eggold), the customer, follows her out of the store and offers to buy her a hot chocolate but Taylor turns him down. Taylor tells her brother about her situation and he discovers that employees of the resort get 50% off the snowboarding camp that her daughter has been accepted at. She goes down to the resort to apply for a job and finds out that the only job available is for a male Santa Claus that pays two thousand dollars a week. With her brother being a costume creator and makeup artist, she cooks up a scheme to impersonate a male who can get the Santa job at the resort. She goes down to the resort in the prosthetic costume and gets the job as Santa Claus, using the name Hugh Man. She is immediately surprised to meet Matthew Layne who is the General Manager of the resort and whose father owns the resort.

Christmas comedy ensues as Taylor tries to keep Matthew from recognizing the lead singer of The Screaming Kittens who turned down his offer of a date. As Taylor, ah-hum, Hugh Man, works with Matthew at the resort playing Santa, he keeps thinking that there is something familiar about “Hugh”. As they bond, he starts confiding in “Hugh” about the woman he met and is starting to have feelings for. Hilariously he asks “Hugh” for advice on how to better get to know Taylor, who is right in front of him. Things get more complex as the season rolls by, and Taylor tries to keep Hugh’s real identity a secret. Her daughter’s snowboarding aspirations and the rent are depending on it.

Alexandra and Ryan are good together in this, they pull off the Christmas Santa Chaos and hit it off with a rocking musical number on stage at the end. It is a little campy in it’s own cute way, but definitely worth a Holiday watch.

Caught Stealing

2025   Sony Pictures Releasing

Rated:  R

Length:  1 hr 47min

Crime ~ Comedy ~ Thriller

Directed by:  Darren Aronofsky

Starring:  Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, Benito Martínez Ocasio, Griffin Dunne, Carol Kane, Yuri Kolokolnikov and Nikita Kukushkin.

2 Russians, 2 Jews And A Puerto Rican Walk Into A Bar….

Caught Stealing is based on The Crime Novel of the same name by American author Charlie Huston, first published on January 1, 2004.

Henry “Hank” Thompson (Austin Butler) is a bartender living in New York’s Lower East Side. He is a washed up former Baseball Player whose major league ambitions were dashed in a drunken car wreck. Hank survived, but his best friend was killed, and it left Hank with a lot of guilt as well as a drinking problem. After closing the bar and heading home to his apartment, he meets his Punk Rock neighbor Russ (Matt Smith) in the hallway. He tells Hank that his father died and he has to fly to London immediately. He asks him to watch his cranky cat, Bud while he is gone. Hank protests but Russ won’t here of it, forces the cat and the key on him and leaves. It seems simple enough but things go south fast when a pair of brutal Russian mobsters (Yuri Kolokolnikov and Nikita Kukushkin) show up looking for Russ, beating Hank so badly he ends up in the hospital in emergency surgery losing a kidney.

A narcotics detective named Elise Roman (Regina King) questions him and hints at Russ’s shady drug connections to the infamous Hasidic Drucker brothers (Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio). Hank denies that he did anything wrong and tells her that Russ only asked him to watch his cat, and he has no idea why the mobsters beat him so savagely. Hank’s girlfriend Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz) assists Hank back to his apartment after being released. Back home Hank discovers a mysterious key stashed in Bud’s litter box hidden in fake plastic cat poop. He decides to go down to the bar to talk to his boss about missing two days while he was in the hospital. He calls Detective Roman and tells her about the key and proceeds to tie one on while he processes recent events. When Hank comes to the next morning in his apartment, the two Russian Mobsters and a Puerto Rican named Colorado (Benito Martínez Ocasio aka Bad Bunny) threaten him with more violence unless he tells them where the key is.

Things go downhill quickly from there as Hank​’s girlfriend Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz) gets caught in the crossfire, leaving him reeling as he dodges beatings, betrayals, and double-crosses from Roman, the Russians, and the Druckers. He hides out, retrieves clues from unexpected spots like abandoned clothes, and scrambles to protect Bud the cat while piecing together who’s after what. Everyone wants that key, and Hank’s past regrets fuel his fight to stay alive amid the chaos of the Lower East Side underworld.​ Bodies pile up and alliances shatter, Hank races through bars, subways, and shadowy deals, outsmarting killers with quick thinking and sheer luck. He confronts lies from those closest to the mess, weighing loyalty against survival in a city that chews up the weak. The stakes skyrocket with threats hitting personal levels, forcing Hank to tap into the grit that once made him a ballplayer.

Austin Butler shines in this gritty urban thriller, and at times it reminds me of his role in Elvis. He has a very distinctive voice full of southern charm, I honestly can’t believe he didn’t win an Oscar for that. Zoë Kravitz brings fiery vulnerability as Yvonne, Hank’s girlfriend. Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio are hilariously menacing as the two Hasidic Drucker brothers Lipa and Shmully. Caught Stealing delivers a pulpy, high-octane thrill ride through 1998 NYC’s gritty underworld, blending brutal action, dark humor, and relentless twists that keep you hooked from the first beatdown.

Highly Recommended!

Now streaming on Netflix!

Champagne Problems

2025   Netflix

Rated:  PG-13

Length:  1 hr  39min

Comedy ~ Romance ~ Christmas

Directed by:  Mark Steven Johnson

Starring:  Minka Kelly, Tom Wozniczka, Sean Amsing, Thibault de Montalembert, Astrid Whettnall, Flula Borg, and Xavier Samuel.

Christmas In France Is Always A Good Idea.

Let’s talk about Champagne, Champagne Problems, and the bubbles in between. Champagne isn’t just a Sparkling Wine from France, it is the most celebratory beverage ever invented. Champagne Problems sound pretty from a distance, Paris, promotions, perfect photos. But up close, they sting like any other heartbreak. The bubbles just make it easier to pretend everything is fine, at least until the glass is empty.

Champagne Problems isn’t just a fizzy holiday rom-com, it is a sparkling holiday movie that’s much more than just a cheerful romantic comedy. It’s a story about how a life that looks perfectly poured can still taste a little off once you sit with it for a while. At first glance, it seems like the usual pretty package, glamorous locations, stylish outfits, and plenty of champagne to toast every little moment. But beneath all that sparkle, it tells a deeper story about what really goes on when life isn’t as perfect as it looks.

The movie’s main character, played beautifully by Minka Kelly, feels trapped in a world where everything is supposed to be perfect and planned. Her life is all about control, schedules, and appearances, but when unexpected emotions start bubbling to the surface, she has to face the truth that not everything can be neatly organized or fixed with a toast. This contrast between the polished exterior and real feelings is what makes the film so relatable and refreshing.

Champagne Problems also does a fantastic job showing how problems in life aren’t always about big disasters. Sometimes, it’s the little things, the doubts, the disappointments, the quiet moments of vulnerability, that matter the most. The story gently reminds us that those “champagne problems” are real feelings that deserve attention, not something to brush off or pretend away.

This movie isn’t just about romance, although the chemistry between Minka Kelly and Tom Wozniczka is magical, it’s about finding the courage to be honest with yourself and others, even when it’s messy or uncomfortable. With heartfelt performances, relatable themes, and a beautifully crafted atmosphere, Champagne Problems is a must-watch holiday film that will leave you both smiling and thinking. If you want a movie that feels like a warm, honest conversation wrapped up in festive cheer, this one’s for you. You know what Bobby would say:

Highly Recommended!

Turn off the lights and devices

(Except for the Tree!),

Make some popcorn,

Grab a beverage,

and Stream This

 Fizzy Christmas Gem

on NETFLIX!