The Christmas Box (1995)

Based on a book by Richard Paul Evans, The Christmas Box is the kind of lovely movie that many people will love to watch in the winter months. Not me though. It wasn't unbearable, mainly thanks to the cast, but it was all just too cloying and manipulative and predictable. Yes, I am well aware that such things could be said of almost every Christmas movie ever made.

Richard Thomas, Annette O'Toole and Kelsey Mulrooney play a family who take a job that involves them moving in to the large home of Mrs. Parkin (Maureen O'Hara). Thomas is a hard-working father who doesn't get to spend much quality time with his family as he strives to make his business more and more successful, something that is duly noted by O'Hara. The pair don't seem to get along at all, but it eventually becomes clear that the lady of the house has an agenda, one that doesn't come from a bad place.

Ironically, this is a film that may well set your teeth on edge like the overly familiar tune emanating from a once-beloved jewellery box. The music, the lethargic camerawork, the horrible way in which it presupposes that the values it manipulates to show negatively are values always to be discarded in favour of, y'know, love and constant reassurance. The character played by Thomas is far from a monster, but you're expected to think worse of him because he's spending a bit too much time working towards a goal. Hey, balance is always better, but I'm not going to throw eggs at every person who occasionally gets it wrong (including myself).

I'm not sure if the book is so irritating, perhaps the screenplay by Greg Taylor ended up exacerbating the flaws, yet I AM sure that the final result isn't something I'll ever be returning to. Director Marcus Cole is happy enough to keep the whole thing feeling like a daytime soap-opera, although he's really hampered by the script/source material that ensures character developments are forced, rather than organically created, by the events.

Thomas and O'Toole do as well as they can with their roles, even if they're not required to show any range or depth, and young Mulrooney is a pleasant enough child actress who doesn't ever get too irritating, which is always a bonus. Yet it's O'Hara who really brings this up a notch. She's not asked to do anything special. She just seems to be the only one who comes close to having any fun (a perk of the character that she's playing).

If this movie was a Christmas card then it would be one of those dull pictures showing a roaring fire with a stocking or two hanging from the mantelpiece. No, not even that. It would be one that has a picture of baubles on the front. Those cards that you always leave until every other card has been sent out, the ones that you end up using for the people you forgot about until the very last minute. Yes, this is one of those. Well-intentioned, but still a bit rubbish and lacking any sense of fun.

4/10

http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Classics-Collection-Fashioned-Capotes/dp/B00DNLZNH8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1418069067&sr=8-2&keywords=the+christmas+box

Sci-Fi September: Battle Beyond The Stars (1980)

It's hard to view Richard Thomas as anything other than the nice lad from The Waltons. He's had some other good roles, including a goodie in the beloved IT, but he's often simply noted for his niceness, which quickly becomes quite bland and ever-so-slightly irritating.

In this movie he's yet another nice guy, a young man sent out by his planet to recruit help after they have been threatened with destruction by big, bad Sador (John Saxon). Thomas picks up some allies, including a space cowboy (George Peppard), a cool loner (Robert Vaughn), and a bonkers Sybil Danning kinda gal (Sybil Danning), and then takes them home. There are seven ships altogether, ready to take on a much bigger selection of enemies.

Directed by Jimmy T. Murakami, and written by John Sayles, Battle Beyond The Stars is a sci-fi riff on Seven Samurai, the classic movie that inspired films as varied as The Magnificent Seven and A Bug's Life. Unfortunately, it misses out on the main element that all of those movies have. Despite a few plus points, Battle Beyond The Stars isn't ever as much fun as it should be. This is probably due to a disappointingly flat script by Sayles, and direction from Murakami that's workmanlike, at best. Some lively performances, and a good score by James Horner, help.

The first paragraph covers my thoughts of Thomas this time around. He's just not a great lead, especially when compared to the supporting cast. Vaughn is enjoyably cool, Peppard is a blast, and Danning puts in another wild performance that has made her a firm fan favourite through the years. Saxon hams it up as the villain, while Darlanne Fluegel is stuck with a character as bland and nice as the one played by Thomas. There are others onscreen, but they either barely register or are covered in prosthetics (Morgan Woodward) to make them pretty unrecognisable.

The pacing isn't too bad, and the special effects are okay for the time and budget (but don't expect them to have held up well over the years), so it manages to avoid being a bad movie. It's just a shame that it also manages to avoid being a very good one. During the many moments without Peppard, Vaughn or Danning, the whole thing just starts to sink when it should be easily soaring from one set-piece to the next.

I'm sure that people who saw this back in the early '80s will always have fond memories of it. We've all got films like that. But even those who have great affection for it will, I think, struggle to overlook all of the flaws when revisiting it today. They'll like it more than I did, but I doubt it will appear on any Top 10 lists.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Cormans-Classics-Anniversary-Special-Blu-ray/dp/B004VT9JJE/ref=tmm_blu_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1410721618