Prime Time: Your Christmas Or Mine 2 (2022)

I enjoyed Your Christmas Or Mine? and I have to start this review by stating that I quite enjoyed Your Christmas Or Mine 2. It’s not as good as the first movie though, despite getting so many people to reprise their roles, both behind and in front of the camera. There’s a very specific reason for that, a notable flaw that becomes clear as things move into the third act, but I will get back to that momentarily.

The plot is simple enough. James (Asa Butterfield) and Hayley (Cora Kirk) are setting off on another Christmas holiday, but this time they intend to remain together. And their respective families are joining them. Unfortunately, a slight mix-up at their destination leads to Hayley and her family ending up in a super-lush and expensive hotel while James and his family end up in what amounts to little more than a large shed. This isn’t enough to sustain the whole movie though, and it’s only the first half of the movie that keeps the two families separate. The rest plays out with a number of misunderstandings, personality clashes, and talk of people living in different worlds. Can James and Hayley soldier through another holiday mishap, or will this be enough to make them call it quits?

Director Jim O’Hanlon once again does well in terms of the straightforward visuals onscreen here, and in the way that he allows every member of the large ensemble cast to capitalize on at least one moment that allows them to shine. There’s nothing spectacular or unexpected here, but it has a fluidity and polish that many other non-theatrical Christmas movies lack.

Writer Tom Parry, on the other hand, seems to stumble slightly. He’s able to come up with some fun moments for the supporting cast, but there are times when it feels as if one or two people are being written in a way that serves the plot, as opposed to feeling natural and in line with how they have previously behaved.

Kirk suffers worst at the hands of Parry, and the grand finale relies on her being a bit less reasonable and willing to listen. She still remains a character you root for, but that is more thanks to her onscreen glow than it is thanks to the script. The same can be said of Angela Griffin (returning as Hayley’s mother), who is given a moment or two when she reacts to someone irritating her with a sharpness and anger that feels at least slightly misdirected. Butterfield gets to be a bit awkward and nervy again, and his character doesn’t seem to change much, which leads to him having a much easier task. Elsewhere, Daniel Mays, Alex Jennings, David Bradley, and Natalie Gumede help to add the most humour to the film, with newcomer Jane Krakowski also a welcome addition, and a running joke about her best-selling book creating exponentially more giggles every time it is mentioned. Ram John Holder (Hayley’s granddad) has some wise words at the right time, and the two youngest characters once again amuse themselves while the adults go through their different dramas. I suppose I should also mention Rhea Norwood as Bea aka Plot Obstacle B.

Skiing mishaps, a goat to be wary of, thoughtful Christmas gifts, an evening of excessive alcohol intake, and more fun elements guarantee that most people will at least enjoy this. It just doesn’t quite add up to a wholly satisfying picture though, and I think many looking for the right balance of Christmasiness, comedy, and romance will end up revisiting the first movie again before this one. 

6/10

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Prime Time: Your Christmas Or Mine? (2022)

Hayley (Cora Kirk) and James (Asa Butterfield) are a young couple in love. They have been dating for a couple of months, but have to separate for the Christmas holidays. Hayley is heading to see her family (including her grandparents, some young, lively, brothers, an aunt embracing the her potential cougar status, and her mum and dad, played by Angela Griffin and Daniel Mays). James will be reuniting with his father (Alex Jennings). Except he won’t, because he decides to leave his train and join Hayley . . . who had decided to leave her train and join James. The two end up with very different experiences, and also learn about the secrets they have been withholding from their families, as well as one another, while lessons are learned and the weather keeps disrupting plans for them to get to their respective homes.

Your Christmas Or Mine? is a lot of fun, benefiting from a better budget and cast than most, but still resolutely selling itself as a typical Christmas film in many ways. There’s a lot of snow, you have at least one fun montage, different people share their different holiday traditions, and, most importantly, some people end the film in a radically different place from where they started. There’s at least one grumpy “Scrooge” who doesn’t embrace the spirit of the season, and one dead parent who plays a defining role in the lives of some of the main characters.

There are also some big chuckles here. Nothing that will necessarily top any “greatest comedy of all time” lists, but writer Tom Parry allows a number of abrupt and cheeky moments that may occasionally make you choke slightly on your mince pie and cocoa as you enjoy a well-placed insult, surprise, or implied naughtiness. Everything stays fairly family-friendly, but Parry knows exactly how far he can go with the warm banter and rude words.

Director Jim O’Hanlon is equally assured, and it shows how well both writer and director have honed their craft over the years spent working on a wide variety of TV projects. O’Hanlon paces everything perfectly, using the obvious transitions and manipulative shot choices to play viewers like a fiddle, and the effective score by Paul Saunderson only assists with the emotional manipulation. Did I know how everything would play out? Yes. Were one or two small surprises enough to keep me even more engaged during the 95-minute runtime? Yes. Did I still get a lump in my throat at various times during the third act, despite knowing where this was all going? I couldn’t possibly confirm or deny that.

Butterfield and Kirk are a winning combination in the lead roles, even if the former still needs to somehow stop his big eyes seeming to take up half the screen. Although I am not familiar with Kirk, I hope to see her in more movie roles soon. She has an easygoing likability and works best when her character is allowed to remain cheery and optimistic. Griffin and Mays also work very well together, having a lovely chemistry onscreen that makes them feel like a genuine married couple, warts and all. Jennings has to be the stiff-lipped and grim character, certainly for most of his screentime, and he does very well in that role. In fact, his delivery of lines that show him teetering on the edge of being more emotional ended up moving me more because of his refusal to ever fully show any “weakness”. There are also enjoyable performances from Harriet Walter, Natalie Gumede, June Watson, Ram John Holder, Lucien Laviscount, David Bradley, and Mark Heap, as well as Aston Wray and Harris Kiiza, playing those aforementioned young brothers.

Probably due to be viewed as just as disposable, ultimately, as many other films made for the Christmas TV schedules, Your Christmas Or Mine? deserves a bit more attention and appreciation. It may work with a familiar template, but it’s certainly miles away from, and much better than, the kind of thing we see rolling off the Christmas movie production line at this time of year. If my final rating doesn’t seem to reflect that, it’s worth noting that I am actually rating it AS a movie, and not just as a Christmas movie.

7/10

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Netflix And Chill: Choose Or Die (2022)

It feels obvious that this is the first feature from director Toby Meakins, who also helped to co-write the screenplay, but the fact that others involved (mainly co-writers Simon Allen and Matthew James Wilkinson) couldn't do enough to make up for the director's inexperience makes me think that everyone was somehow thinking they were creating something fun and entertaining. There are some decent moments here, especially a final "big boss" battle that has a very enjoyable twist, but far too much of this feels like it is coming along at least twenty years later than it should. I know that is part of the main concept, being based on people finding a survival horror computer game from the 1980s, but it feels more laughably outdated than cool retro.

Iola Evans plays Kayla, a woman who is having a tough time of things. She is working as a cleaner while trying to complete her studies, and she's also struggling to keep her drug addict mother safe and healthy. She does have a good friend, however, in the shape of Isaac (Asa Butterfield). Isaac helps her in her studies while working on coding his own game. One day, while nosing around the many bits and pieces accumulated in Isaac's apartment, Kayla finds an old computer game called CURS>R.  It offers a large cash prize reward to people who call a special number and then start playing the game. Kayla decides to compete for the prize, but soon realises that the game can affect the reality around her, and when she is forced to make a choice it is usually going to result in someone dying.

Bookended by a few great scenes that involve Eddie Marsan, as someone who also played the game, Choose Or Die makes the crucial mistake of filling out the majority of the film with moments that don't have enough random characters to become potential victims. The very first time that Kayla realises the danger of the game, forcing a waitress to smash a load of glasses and then clean up the mess with an unusual, and fatal, method. This should have been an ongoing aspect of the film. Yes, put the main characters in peril, but keep a decent selection of others around who can be despatched in mean-spirited ways.

Another mistake is the format of the game. A text-based adventure doesn't just seem cool and retro, it feels practically archaic nowadays. This could have easily been even a basic 3-D adventure, incorporating enough elements from Kayla's surroundings to show her how much the lines between the gaming world and the real world were being blurred.

Finally, but arguably most importantly, there aren't any characters, outwith Kayla, that viewers can really care for. Isaac is really just there to explain things, and try to help at a crucial point, and Kayla's mother spends most of her time in bed, and in pain. The best character isn't even shown onscreen, it's the voice on the recorded telephone message (a fun cameo by Robert Englund playing . . . Robert Englund).

Evans does a decent job in her role, and is certainly the best of the main bunch, and Marsan is as good as ever, particularly enjoyable as a character who will do anything to maintain some status quo, but Butterfield, although not bad, will probably not want to keep this one near the top of his CV. Angela Griffin deserves a better role than this one, she's that pained mother lying in bed, Ryan Gage is an over the top Mr. Nasty, and Joe Bolland has a decent scene, playing the creator of the game.

Falling right in between where it should have landed, Choose Or Die is neither continually nasty enough to make it worth your time nor enjoyably silly in a way that plays up the retro-gaming aspect of the premise. There's nothing here that feels worthy of praise, nothing here that really feels worth your time. I hope Meakins picks a better project for his next directorial outing, and everyone who worked on this script needs to get used to taking a step back, maybe putting their work away for a while, and then getting back to it some time later with a better sense of what they should really be aiming for.

3/10

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