Netflix And Chill: Jingle Bell Heist (2025)

I like to think that I am quite honest when it comes to my opinions on movies. Sometimes I can happily blame a movie for any faults, and sometimes I have to blame myself for entering the viewing experience with certain preconceptions or bias. I'm not sure who should get more of the blame for Jingle Bell Heist, but I think it's the makers of the film. Writers Abby McDonald and Amy Reed don't seem to know exactly what kind of film they're serving up, and director Michael Fimognari doesn't do nearly enough to keep you invested in either main option, be it seasonal rom-com or fun crime flick. Okay, the title clues you in to the main aim of the plot, but the plotting leaves a lot to be desired.

Sophia (Olivia Holt) works at a grand department store owned by the Scrooge-adjacent Maxwell Sterling (Peter Serafinowicz). She has the chance to commit a minor theft, which she wants to do in order to help pay for the medical treatment of her sick mother (Natasha Joseph), but that brings her to the attention of tech-savvy Nick (Connor Swindells), a young man seeking to rob Sterling's premises, despite already having served some time in prison for previously robbing the place. The two of them decide to work together, but they'll also need to figure out how to get certain information out of Mrs. Sterling (Lucy Punch). 

If you want your movie to be viewed and enjoyed as a heist movie then you need to get the details and timing right. Jingle Bell Heist takes viewers on a number of tangents that ultimately prove inconsequential. It's a way to fill the runtime, I guess, but isn't good as an example of the mechanics and appeal of any heist movie. Which is why I started to think that this was a rom-com with the heist as simply a plot device looming large behind our leads. But it doesn't have enough rom or com to make it a success in that sub-genre either.

Holt isn't bad in the lead role, even if ill-served by the screenplay, but there's no chemistry between herself and Swindells, who is also someone I wouldn't call bad. It's just a shame that neither cast member seems to work as intended. Serafinowicz is slightly underused, but that makes the scenes with him more of a treat. Joseph has to look ill, but also remain upbeat and lovely, which she manages, and Punch gets involved in a sequence that ends up being the comedic highlight of the whole thing. Poppy Drayton and Michael Salami do fine in very different supporting turns, as do Ed Kear, James Dryden, and everyone else filling out the cast list.

On the plus side, it doesn't feel too cheap or slap-dash, which is more than can be said for many other movies churned out to keep spreading the Christmas cheer, but that's about the only major positive. None of the dialogue is particularly smart or witty, none of the plot developments feel as if they unfold in a way that is natural and plausible, and it's very hard to stay invested in something so, well, nonchalant about the tropes and beats that could have made it a much more enjoyable experience.

4/10

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Netflix And Chill: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023)

Making a sequel to Chicken Run seemed like a bad idea. While it may not quite hit the heights of the wonderful Wallace & Gromit movie, the first film remains quite a beloved animated feature. What could be gained in revisiting that world, especially when someone felt that both lead voices needed recast? Thankfully, Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget proves a worthy successor to the original film. It's not quite as good, but it's another fantastic adventure that's crammed full of fowl humour.

Some time has passed since the events of the first film. The characters are living happily in their own little free-range paradise. Ginger (now voiced by Thandiwe Newton) and Rocky (now voiced by Zachary Levi) have had a child, Molly (Bella Ramsey). Both parents are, understandably, a bit over-protective, but Molly ends up wandering out of the accepted safety zone, befriending another chicken (Frizzle, voiced by Josie Sedgwick-Davies) and being too curious for her own good. Molly and Frizzle end up in Fun-Land Farms, a place depicted as a delightful playground for chickens. But Fun-Land Farms has a dark and disturbing secret, and Ginger and Rocky have to assemble a team to break in and rescue their daughter, and a whole new group of chickens.

Directed by Sam Fell, who has previous credits that include the equally-excellent, but very different, ParaNorman and Flushed Away, and written by Karey Kirkpartrick, John O'Farrell, and Rachel Tunnard (as well as numerous other contributors, ensuring a great big sachet of flavouring spices sprinkled all over the film), this is an impressively fresh and funny adventure that manages to craft another worthwhile escapade for some recognisable characters. It may not seem as cine-literate as the first film, but it continues to throw around a lot of fun gags and great ideas, and impressively avoids changing the personalities of the main characters to fit into this new scenario.

All of the new voices work well enough in their feather-covered roles (even if I agree with the many others who questioned exactly why Sawalha wasn't asked to voice Ginger once more), and Ramsey is a perfect fit for the young and impulsive Molly. David Bradley feels like a great replacement for the late Benjamin Whitrow, voicing Fowler, and it's great to have Lynn Ferguson, Jane Horrocks, and Imelda Staunton back for their respective characters. Sedgwick-Davies also does well, and both Romesh Ranganathan and Daniel Mays effortlessly take over the voices of two helpful rats, Nick and Fletcher. Elsewhere, but just as important for this kind of thing, the vocal talents of Peter Serafinowicz, Nick Mohammed, and Miranda Richardson (another returning cast member) are put to great use as the looming threats to our plucky cluckers.

I'm generally an easy mark for any Aardman Animation projects, and I went into this with a sense of optimism after enjoying the trailer for it. Despite the gap of time in between the two films, this is an excellent sequel to a modern classic. The fact that it isn't quite as good isn't surprising, considering the greatness of the first film. The fact that it's as good as it is, well, that's the surprise. And I hope others enjoy it as much as I did. We now have two features that can be paired together for an eggs-ellent double-bill. You knew that pun was going to appear here at least once.

8/10

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Netflix And Chill: The Bubble (2022)

If you wanted to be particularly cruel about The Bubble, a star-studded and overlong comedy from Judd Apatow, who simply cannot make a film under 2 hours nowadays, and has clearly been having a lot more fun than most viewers over the past 5-10 years (although I did really enjoy The King Of Staten Island), then you could quite easily say that it feels like the best way to deliver a huge dollop of nepotism. This is underscored by the moment in which the movie turns into one extensive, elaborately-choreographed, TikTok video for a character, Krystal Kris, played by Iris "daughter of Judd" Apatow. I don't want to be particularly cruel about it, but I don't want to be particularly nice about it either.

Because The Bubble is bloody awful. It's largely unfunny, feels very smug for a lot of the runtime, and doesn't give you any characters to really care about. And the saddest thing about it is the fact that it wastes a great cast, all of whom seem game to make fun of themselves, and all of whom are then given the most careful handling, as if they are too fragile to handle some actual digs and humour.

The plot is simple. A group of actors are set up in a large hotel to film the latest instalment of an ongoing blockbuster franchise, Cliff Beasts 6. Each star has their own set of issues, but most of those issues are either underdeveloped or just not that great, comedically. Oh, and there's ongoing social distancing in place, quarantine rules, and tests for COVID.

Co-written by Apatow and Pam Brady, it's really hard to view this as anything more than a vanity project that goes for some easy options at a time when film-making has become even more challenging than usual (BECAUSE of the kinds of measures shown onscreen). This feels like a film that was hastily written around what was viewed as a winning central concept, clearly sold to the stars as something better than it ended up being. .

The cast are often trying their best, and the familiar faces are people I have enjoyed in many other movies. Karen Gillan, David Duchovny, Keegan-Michael Key, Fred Armisen, Peter Serafinowicz, and Kate McKinnon are highlights for me, while Harry Trevaldwyn, who I haven't seen before, was an absolute scene-stealer. There are a couple of fun cameos from John Cena and James McAvoy, but a less fun cameo from Beck, and everyone else varies between the poor (Pedro Pascal just isn't as good with the comedy, sorry) to the perfectly . . . okay. Leslie Mann and Iris Apatow aren't necessarily bad in their roles, but their casting feels like an excuse to make this a fun time for the family, rather than the best time possible for the viewing audience.

There's great stuff to be mined from this kind of scenario, from the actors feeling privileged enough that they don't think they should need to adhere to social distancing rules to the lengths a studio will go to in order to get more content out there after such a lean spell, but this doesn't succeed. Part of the problem, perhaps, is making the film being made such an obviously stupid one (seriously, it's maybe less substantial than Monster Trucks), but I think the biggest problem is Apatow, someone who continues to move further and further away from any place where he can be self-critical and disciplined. 

It gets one point for every time I laughed.

3/10

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