Snow (2004)

Tom Cavanagh and Ashley Williams star in this pleasant enough Christmas fantasy film that almost rises above the level of average, thanks to the two likeable leads, but doesn't quite make it.

Cavanagh plays Nick Snowden, a man best known to children everywhere as Santa Claus. Nick has to make an unplanned journey when one of his reindeer is spotted by an unscrupulous hunter (Patrick Fabian), tranquilised and taken away to a city zoo. He needs to get the reindeer back for obvious reasons but he also just wants it out of the way from prying eyes as it's not quite learned how to fly yet but should be getting to that stage at any moment. Nick ends up enlisting the help of animal keeper Sandy Brooks (Ashley Williams) but he can only tell her so much. Who would believe that he's really Santa Claus and who would believe that he can use mirrors to travel between the North Pole and anywhere in the world? Well, maybe young Hector (Bobb'e J. Thompson) would but not many others.

Directed by Alex Zamm and written by Rich Burns, Snow is a decent little slice of family entertainment. Okay, so it does enough throughout to keep reminding you that it's a TV movie but it's better than a hundred other uninspired and unimaginative TV movies that have been churned out to fill schedules at this most wonderful time of year.

Tom Cavanagh may seem a bit bland to some people. Oh, alright, he IS quite bland, there's no denying it but I still like him nonetheless (mainly because I used to catch occasional episodes of Ed and then I also enjoyed his character popping up in Scrubs). Ashley Williams brightens up the screen so the movie is lifted slightly whenever she's involved, which is quite a lot, and Patrick Fabian is a fun "baddie". Bobb'e J. Thompson, despite his ridiculously apostrophised name, is good fun as the young smartass who has his heart in the right place.

There are plenty of snowy moments, some cute reindeer, fun with Santa making sure that nobody thinks he's Santa and at least one scene reminiscent of Ernest Saves Christmas ensuring that it's not all bad.

5/10

http://www.amazon.com/Snow-Tom-Cavanagh/dp/B001BAWKRE/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1355481332&sr=1-3&keywords=snow

Food Of The Gods II AKA Gnaw (1989).

It’s been a while since I’ve seen The Food Of The Gods but what I remember about it was that it was full of varied, hokey effects and still ended up being a lot of fun. It was a standard Bert I. Gordon film, something that screamed Mr BIG in every frame featuring overgrown, dangerous animals.

 

Food Of The Gods II is very much in the same vein, though it’s more obviously ridiculous for most of it’s runtime (as hard as that may be to believe).

This time it’s mainly rats that are growing far too big for their boots (or whatever the shoewear choice of rats would be . . . . . . . . if they wore footwear) and everything goes horribly wrong thanks to those pesky animal rights activists trying to teach a lesson to those pesky scientists yet again. There’s also an overgrown child who swears at people and a dream sequence involving sex and worryingly large hands. You have to see it to fully appreciate the imagery.

 

With a cunning mixture of rat-like stuffed pillows and normal rats being given the run of various miniature model sets, Food Of The Gods II ensured that it would never receive an Oscar for it’s visual effects but, like it’s predecessor, it’s a bit of fun that doesn’t pretend to be anything else. In fact, there are more than a few moments that almost feel as if director Damian Lee and writers Richard Bennett and Mike Werb (credited as E. Kim Brewster) all did their best to make everything just a little bit more laughable, whether it’s just the dialogue on it’s own or the upbeat synth music that accompanies some scenes really not searching for upbeat synth music.

 

The cast must have known what they were getting into, surely. Jackie Burroughs would get into more rat-related trouble many years later with her wonderful performance in Willard but here she’s given very little screentime and is overshadowed, both metaphorically and literally, by a petulant child. Paul Coufos, Lisa Schrage, Colin Fox, etc are all simply okay but not really memorable enough in amongst the giant rodent carnage.

There is a small part of me that wanted to rate this movie higher for the fun factor it supplied (isn’t that the way with so many of the movies that I watch in my favourite genre?) but I am going to try and be the tiniest bit sensible today and go with . . .

4/10.

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share