Tag: London

Jingle Bell Heist

2025   Netflix

Rated:  Unrated

Length:  1 hr  36min

Christmas ~ Comedy ~ Romance

Directed by:  Michael Fimognari

Starring:  Olivia Holt, Connor Swindells, Lucy Punch and Peter Serafinowicz.

“Tis The Season To Give And Take.

FROM NETFLIX TUDUM:

Two down-on-their-luck hourly workers reluctantly form an alliance to rob one of London’s most illustrious department stores on Christmas Eve. As they hatch their plans, the pair start to realize there are sparks between them, and they’re not from the twinkly holiday lights around jolly London town. The Netflix original holiday film Jingle Bell Heist stars Olivia Holt (Heart Eyes) and Connor Swindells (Sex Education). The film was directed by Michael Fimognari (To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You), and co-written by Abby McDonald (Bridgerton) and Amy Reed (Diary of a Future President).

When Sophia Martin (Holt) moved to London from Philadelphia to care for her mother after a cancer diagnosis, she expected life across the pond to be a bit more affordable. Stuck caretaking while working two jobs, Sophia’s at her wit’s end when she learns her mother’s surgery won’t be covered by insurance. Desperate for a quick payday, she resorts to robbing her horrible boss, Maxwell Sterling (Serafinowicz), only to be caught by Nick O’Connor, a former security consultant turned phone technician.

Nick has no reason to turn Sophia in, though. He’s more interested in teaming up with her to land funds to take care of his daughter after his recent divorce. So Sophia and Nick form an alliance out of desperation, but, as the pair begin to plan the ultimate seasonal scam, a holiday heist at a posh department store, their scheming relationship might just turn into something more.

The Review:

I watched this last night (Friday November 28,2025), the day after Thanksgiving,  also known as Black Friday. The official battle cry day of The Holidays. I wasn’t really in a Christmas mood yet being a little overwhelmed by how quickly Christmas was going to arrive. I looked for a movie in vain, which is incredibly odd because I have numerous streaming platforms to access, and numerous lists of movies to watch to review, including a growing Christmas/Holiday Movie List. But I wasn’t quite ready to watch a Christmas movie yet. Then I saw Jingle Bell Heist on Netflix, it is high up on my Christmas list of movies to watch, and was #2 on Netflix’s Top Ten Movies…..

Alrighty then, Christmas movie it is…..

I gave in and tried to get in the mood as Jingle Bell Heist started, honestly I felt more like The Grinch. The Movie starts with Sophia and Nick in a Department store Christmas Eve as the lights are getting turned off. They turn to each other and, Jinx Jinx they owe each other a coke as they both start to say, “You don’t have to do this…….”. Then we are transported back in time to two weeks earlier as Sophia is walking to work. She comes upon a man and his daughter busking, playing Holiday tunes on their violins when a grumpy old Grinch guy says, “You can’t do that here, take it somewhere else.”

Right away Sophie (Olivia Holt) grabbed my attention as she watched, then bumped into the old Grinch guy, promptly heists his wallet, takes out the cash and gives it to the buskers as she says, “Merry Christmas”. That was it, Jingle Bell Heist and Olivia Holt had my full undivided attention. I love the Underdogs and Sophie and Nick (Connor Swindells) sure have the world working against them. As their troubles unfolded before me, they instantly had my empathy. Both trying to lift themselves up out of their situations financially, working at jobs with bosses they don’t like. Both trying to look out for and take care of their families.

Sophie and Nick cook up a scheme to “get the money” but that is just the beginning of this Christmas Caper Roller Coaster Ride. There is more going on than meets the eye, everywhere we look and every step of the way, as these two plan a Holiday Heist. Unexpected twists and turns right up until the very end in this Christmas Rom-Com! In the end I enjoyed the Jingle Bell Ride! Why are you still reading this?

Turn off the lights and devices,

Make some popcorn,

Grab a beverage,

and Stream This Movie

on Netflix!

New Movie Jingle Bell Heist Debuts on Netflix Wednesday November 26, 2025

Just in time to kick off the holidays and the long Thanksgiving Weekend, Netflix is releasing a brand new Christmas Caper.

Jingle Bell Heist Debuts Wednesday November 26, 2025 on Netflix.

FROM NETFLIX TUDUM:

Two down-on-their-luck hourly workers reluctantly form an alliance to rob one of London’s most illustrious department stores on Christmas Eve. As they hatch their plans, the pair start to realize there are sparks between them, and they’re not from the twinkly holiday lights around jolly London town. The Netflix original holiday film Jingle Bell Heist stars Olivia Holt (Heart Eyes) and Connor Swindells (Sex Education). The film was directed by Michael Fimognari (To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You), and co-written by Abby McDonald (Bridgerton) and Amy Reed (Diary of a Future President).

When Sophia Martin (Holt) moved to London from Philadelphia to care for her mother after a cancer diagnosis, she expected life across the pond to be a bit more affordable. Stuck caretaking while working two jobs, Sophia’s at her wit’s end when she learns her mother’s surgery won’t be covered by insurance. Desperate for a quick payday, she resorts to robbing her horrible boss, Maxwell Sterling (Serafinowicz), only to be caught by Nick O’Connor, a former security consultant turned phone technician.

Nick has no reason to turn Sophia in, though. He’s more interested in teaming up with her to land funds to take care of his daughter after his recent divorce. So Sophia and Nick form an alliance out of desperation, but, as the pair begin to plan the ultimate seasonal scam, a holiday heist at a posh department store, their scheming relationship might just turn into something more.

28 Years Later

2025  Sony Pictures

Rated:  R

Length:  1 hr  55min

Drama ~ Horror ~ Post-Apocalyptic ~ Sci-Fi ~ Thriller

Directed by: Danny Boyle

Starring: Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Alfie Williams, and Ralph Fiennes.

Time Didn’t Heal Anything….

28 Years Later plunges viewers back into the bleak aftermath of the Rage Virus outbreak, delivering an intense blend of survival horror, emotional depth, and chilling philosophy. Streaming on Netflix, Danny Boyle’s latest horror chapter explores human fragility and monstrous transformation nearly three decades after the initial pandemic.

The story centers on a fortified community on the island of Lindisfarne, cut off from the mainland by a causeway. Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) prepares his son Spike (Alfie Williams in his Feature Film Debut) for a coming-of-age hunting ritual, teaching him to hunt infected with bow and arrow. Their precarious existence shatters when Spike’s mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), falls mysteriously ill. Spike escapes to the mainland with her, determined to find Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), a reclusive doctor known for his troubling fixation on death.

The infected are more terrifying and evolved, exemplified by Samson, an Alpha infected with increased strength and cunning who leads vicious packs of infecteds. The film’s hunting sequences are taut and brutal, focusing on survival amid fast, relentless infected terrorizing the once-familiar landscape.

Dr. Kelson embodies the film’s somber philosophical heart. Living among the dead, he has constructed a sinister Bone Temple: a towering, macabre monument made from collected skulls and bones, including those of infected victims and fallen survivors. This shrine serves as a memento mori, a reminder of death’s permanence and humanity’s mortality. Kelson’s obsession with the Bone Temple reflects his struggle to find meaning in devastation, a fixation cloaked in ritual and melancholia.

The film opens with a 2002 scene featuring young Jimmy Crystal, a boy fleeing the initial chaos of the Rage outbreak alongside his father, a priest. His father gifts him a crucifix necklace and speaks of judgment day, embedding faith and destiny into the boy’s psyche. The movie’s closing scenes reveal Jimmy as an adult and charismatic cult leader, Sir Jimmy Crystal, whose followers share his name and mimic his appearance. This powerful connection between the innocent boy at the start and the manipulative cult figure at the end deepens the film’s exploration of trauma, faith, and power in a broken world. Sir Jimmy Crystal was reportedly inspired by the controversial British TV personality and charity fundraiser Jimmy Savile, who, after his death in 2011, was revealed to have been a prolific sexual predator.

Throughout, 28 Years Later weaves harrowing survival with emotional storytelling, including the pregnant infected woman who gives birth amid chaos, a stark metaphor for hope and life’s persistence. The dire truths of illness, betrayal, and loss underscore Spike’s journey from boyhood into brutal adulthood, navigating a savage world where faith itself is weaponized.

28 Years Later and its sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple were filmed back-to-back during the summer of 2024, allowing for a seamless continuation of the story with consistent casting and tone. The Bone Temple, directed by Nia DaCosta with a screenplay by Alex Garland, is set to release on January 16, 2026. The sequel picks up where the first film leaves off, deepening the story of Spike’s induction into Sir Jimmy Crystal’s violent cult and Dr. Kelson’s dark discoveries. Cillian Murphy reprises his role from the original 28 Days Later as Jim, making a pivotal return in the ending of The Bone Temple, which sets up the highly anticipated third film in the trilogy, which is still in development.

Why stream: With a gripping storyline, fearsome new infected, and haunting meditations on death and belief through Dr. Kelson’s Bone Temple and Jimmy’s rise, 28 Years Later offers a fresh, profound evolution of Boyle’s groundbreaking horror saga. And if you’ve come this far on the journey, watching 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, you have to watch this one!

28 Days Later

28 Weeks Later

28 Weeks Later

2007   20th Century Fox

Rated:  R

Length:  1 hr  39min

Drama ~ Horror ~ Post-Apocalyptic ~ Sci-Fi ~ Thriller

Directed by:  Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

Starring:  Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau, Imogen Poots and Idris Elba.

The Days Turn Into Weeks….

Following the events of 28 Days Later we are introduced to Don (Robert Carlyle) and his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) who are hiding out in a farmhouse with an older couple and a young woman. Just as in the first movie, they are running low on food and supplies, and spend their time fortifying the farmhouse against the infected. suddenly there is pounding on the door and a young boy screams to be let in. They begrudgingly comply but soon realize that he is being chased by a horde of the infected. They soon overrun the farmhouse and Don and Alice get trapped upstairs with the young boy. As they go into another bedroom to escape there is already an infected in the room and has come between Alice and the child on one side and Don just inside the bathroom. Realizing that Alice and the child are doomed, Don self-preservation kicks in he escapes out onto the roof, down onto the ground and makes a run for the boat in the river, leaving Alice to her fate.

28 weeks later, the Rage Virus outbreak has largely ended due to the starvation of the infected. NATO forces, led by the U.S. military, have taken control of London and established a heavily guarded “safe zone” called District One on the Isle of Dogs. Survivors, including Don and Alice’s children Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton)who were abroad during the outbreak, are allowed to return and live under military protection. Don manages one of the apartment buildings in the safe zone, but lies to his children about abandoning their mother.

Tammy and Andy sneak out of District One to visit their old family home in hopes of retrieving personal items. There, Andy discovers Alice alive but in a delirious state. Military personnel capture Alice and bring her back to the safe zone where she is quarantined and tested by Medical Officer Scarlet (Rose Byrne). She is found to be an asymptomatic carrier of the Rage Virus, she carries the virus without symptoms but can infect others through her blood or saliva. Don secretly visits Alice, pleading for forgiveness. After a kiss, Don is infected and goes on a brutal rampage, killing Alice and sparking a rapid outbreak within the safe zone.

Scarlet rescues Tammy and Andy, believing the children may hold genetic immunity that could lead to a cure. As the infection spreads, Military Commander Stone (Idris Elba) orders mass executions in a desperate attempt to contain it. Sergeant Doyle(Jeremy Renner) refuses to comply and helps the small group, including Tammy, Andy, Scarlet, and another survivor, Sam, flee. They survive the chaos and firebombing of District One, though Don pursues them relentlessly.

In the dramatic finale, Tammy, Andy, and Scarlet reach Wembley Stadium, where helicopter pilot Flynn reluctantly flies them across the English Channel to France. However, Andy’s status as an asymptomatic carrier means the virus has now spread beyond Britain, a chilling revelation as infected emerge in Paris near the Eiffel Tower.

28 Weeks Later delivers a gripping mix of family drama and relentless horror, painting a bleak picture of survival and human frailty amid the breakdown of society. It was interesting to go back and see Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Imogen Poots and Idris Elba 18 years ago. Just out of curiosity I went back and looked at what were their first movies:

  • Rose Byrne ~ Dallas Doll (1994). This was her 17th movie.
  • Jeremy Renner ~ National Lampoon’s Senior Trip (1995). This was his 12th movie.
  • Imogen Poots ~ V For Vendetta ~ (2005). This was her 2nd movie!
  • Idris Alba ~ Beautiful Mother (1999). This was his 8th Movie.

It is just as terrifying and horrific as the first with a Family’s drama over coping with the outbreak thrown in and it leaves us guessing as to what happens next, 28 years Later. And that’s what we are watching on Netflix tonight. Be back tomorrow with a review of 28 Years Later!

28 Days Later

28 Years Later