Next Stop, Christmas (2021)

Written by Kari Drake and Duane Poole, Next Stop, Christmas is another Christmas TV movie that makes use of a time travel element. Which also means that it's another Christmas TV movie that makes use of Christopher Lloyd. The fact that it also features Lea Thompson in a main role gives it bonus points though, and creates some extra familiarity with one or two of the plot details (such as someone aiming to recreate a first date for their parents so that a loving relationship can be maintained).

Lyndsy Fonseca plays Angie Reynolds, a young woman who feels a tinge of regret one Christmas when she starts to think of what might have been. She is doing well in her medical career, but that is offset by her thought that she should have said yes when her boyfriend, Tyler Grant (Eric Freeman), proposed to her a decade ago. They are no longer in contact, although she sees his face anywhere because of his successful career as a sports commentator/presenter. Angie has also been saddened by the fact that her parents drifted apart and ended up separating. A big chance to change things is given to her, unbeknownst to her, when a magical train station “worker” (Christopher Lloyd) gives her a round trip ticket that takes her to that crucial holiday with the family . . . ten years previously. Can Angie accept her proposal now? Can she help her parents find their spark again? And will she reconnect with her best friend from childhood, Ben (Chandler Massey)?

While hitting a lot of the Christmas TV movie tropes, Next Stop, Christmas also manages to be genuinely entertaining, and occasionally properly amusing, throughout. It counts on viewers buying into the inexplicable magic of the main premise, but viewers have to do that with every Christmas movie, to some degree, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

The script hits all of the expected beats, but you also get some enjoyable pop culture references, and things are helped by the fact that Angie outright explains her situation to Ben about a third of the way into the movie, providing proof that eventually convinced him that she is telling the truth. The fact that our lead has to fix a situation in order to make a faded train ticket become fully visible is also a fun nod to the casting of Lloyd and Thompson (every time it was shown, I couldn’t help but thinking of that family photo in Back To The Future).

Director Dustin Rikert isn’t new to this kind of stuff, although his filmography has a varied mix to it, and he does well with the material, simply allowing the lead characters to have much more fun when not attached to any of the main supporting characters.

Fonseca is a very likeable lead, one of the best I can think of when it comes to these movies, and she works well with an equally-likeable Massey. Freeman needs that big flaw that allows our lead to see where her heart may truly lie, but he’s not stuck with being a massive jerk. He’s not actually that bad, the main problem being his constant attachment to his phone as he is offered a major career opportunity. Lloyd is a fun presence, appearing every so often looking not entirely unlike Tom Hanks in The Polar Express, and the film is boosted by his role being more than just a point-scoring cameo. Thompson is also very much welcome, even if she is playing a woman who seems quite unhappy for most of the movie, and the rest of the cast does just fine, although the only other standout is Erika Slezak as Aunt Myrt (a woman famous for her wonderful Christmas parties).

Once again, I must remind people that Christmas TV movies are films I compare to a standard set by other Christmas TV movies. By that criteria, this is a great success. It’s still as predictable as you expect, but the journey of discovery is a lot more entertaining than the same kind of journey shown in so many other movies made to fill the schedules at this time of year.

7/10

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Netflix And Chill: Sierra Burgess Is A Loser (2018)

I wouldn't have prioritised a viewing of Sierra Burgess Is A Loser if I hadn't read yet another selection of articles written by people getting upset about content that I wasn't sure was intended to offend, in context. But we all know that anyone being offended doesn't give a damn about context. Just ask, well, anyone who has recently been offended.

As suspected, there isn't much here to cause offence, certainly when you compare it to the works that have influenced it (such as Cyrano de Bergerac, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and the many John Hughes movies of the 1980s). There are mean-spirited things said about various people, but all of those insults say more about the attitudes and mindsets of the characters delivering them than they say about the makers of the movie. And the characters, including the one that viewers are supposed to root for, do some bad, deceitful, things. I refer you back to the influences just mentioned. So let's move forward with a more standard look at the film without making any attempts to defend aspects that don't need defending.

Shannon Purser plays Sierra, a high school student who doesn't fit in with the crowd of more popular girls, and therefore is labelled as a loser. When Veronica (Kristine Froseth) decides to have fun by handing out Sierra's phone number, claiming it to be her own, it's not long until romance is budding, by text, between Sierra and a young man named Jamey (Noah Centineo). To keep up the pretence, Sierra will need help from Veronica. And it turns out that the latter may need some help of her own, in the form of tutoring, so the two work together, discovering that they have more in common than either would think.

I don't know how things work for Netflix picking up, or creating, their original content but it seems to be working out well for them to often take calculated risks. Perhaps the stars, content, and viewing habits are enough for the algorithms to give them the nod to throw money at a variety of projects (and let's not forget that their data-analysing system gave us House Of Cards). This is, I assume, why we have Sierra Burgess Is A Loser as the directorial feature of Ian Samuels, after a string of shorts on his filmography, and the screenwriting debut of Lindsey Beer. Both do well enough, with Beer using the teen comedy framing to explore loyalty, friendship, peer pressure, honesty, and the benefits and downsides of connecting with others on the worldwide web. Samuels may not stamp his personality on the material, but he shows a knack for emulating the vibe of past teen movies (ones that we still view fondly, despite the many problems that come packaged with them).

Purser has been garnering quite the fanbase since her turn in Stranger Things, and she puts in another good performance here. Sierra is a good young woman, but she makes bad decisions when she starts to become more selfish, neglecting her close friend (Dan, played by R. J. Cyler) and piling one lie on top of another to keep up a dishonest relationship. Froseth is the typical high school clique queen, initially, and does well with that part. She also gets to show another side of her as she and Sierra grow closer, an aspect of the film that is necessary but feels slightly rushed. Centineo is a likable male lead, helped by the fact that his character is kind and earnest as well as the object of Sierra's affection, and Cyler is a lot of fun in his role. The other supporting players are all well and good, but it will please many veiwers to see that Alan Ruck and Lea Thompson play the parents of the main character.

What this film gets right is the general high school movie feel and the selection of standard teen problems. And the cast. What it gets wrong is the lack of believability in a lot of the character developments, which affects everything, although still doesn't do enough damage if you're happy to overlook the flaws while enjoying the predictable beats that lead up to a predictable, if undeserved, finale.

6/10

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Red Dawn (1984)

Red Dawn is another film from the '80s that many people view with fondness. It could be to do with the ridiculously entertaining plot - America is invaded and a bunch of teens become formidable guerrilla warriors. It could be to do with the cast, which includes a lot of great youngsters with support from dependable old hands such as Harry Dean Stanton, Ben Johnson and Powers Boothe. Or it could just be the very, well, eighties-ness of it all. Having somehow never seen the film until now, I don't have the rosy tint of nostalgia to cloud my judgment. I can still enjoy Red Dawn and I can still see why so many would have enjoyed it more when it was released in 1984 but I can also see the many negative points.

Starting off with a laughable amount of title cards that get viewers up to speed, Red Dawn quickly gets the action started when a bunch of American schoolkids are alarmed, to say the least, by invading Soviet forces.
They head for the hills, at first just thinking of survival but soon coming up with tactics to use in a concerted effort to fight back.

It's, essentially, a war movie set on American soil with lots of young heartthrobs in the cast. Patrick Swayze is the older, brave member of the group while the likes of C. Thomas Howell, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey, Lea Thompson, Darren Dalton and Brad Savage look up to him. Then there are those old hands I already mentioned in supporting roles, as well as Lane Smith, Ron O'Neal and Frank McRae, though the latter is onscreen for merely a minute or so.

This may not be the finest film from director John Milius but it's worth a watch for a number of reasons. First of all, there's the subject matter. Yes, it's dumb and gung-ho for most of the runtime but there are also a surprising number of dark moments that aren't expected in a film about teen freedom fighters. Secondly, the cast. Of course. Thirdly, this is an early film in the interesting career of Kevin Reynolds. I like Kevin Reynolds (oh yes, I liked Waterworld - a lot) and the movies that he's involved with always tend to have enough sheer entertainment in the mix to keep me happy throughout.

Red Dawn is a film that was, undoubtedly, best viewed in 1984 but you can still watch it now and, after checking that nobody else can see you, allow yourself to pump your fist in the air and shout "Go Wolverines!".

6/10

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