Christmas Festival Of Ice (2017)

You know how it is. You slave away for years, working on a career in the world of law, being an upstanding member of the community, life opening up ahead of you like an oyster about to show you the biggest, shiniest pearl. Everything could be yours for the taking, if only you could satisfy that insatiable urge to indulge in some ice sculpting.

As ridiculous as that sounds, that's only a slightly exaggerated summary of this movie, which is indeed about a young woman (Emma, played by Taylor Cole) who tries to balance her legal career with the chance to do some ice sclupting in the run up to Christmas. It is something she always used to do with her father, and it's bad news when the town decides that they can't afford to have it as part of the festivities this year. Asking what can be done about it, Emma is told that the council may be able to put up $5000 if she can raise the other $15000, which would then be enough to let everyone have their ice sculpting fun again. Emma sets out to raise the funds, and she also meets another local talent (Nick, played by Damon Runyan), so the scene MAY be set for a third act involving ice, the sculpting of that ice, and the warm glow of affection in the cold weather of Christmas. Maybe.

Directed by Bradley Walsh (for UK folks, like me, I don't think it is THAT Bradley Walsh . . . . but please let me know if I am very incorrect in that assumption) and written by David Golden, this is another harmless bauble to fill up the TV schedules at this time of year. While the premise may seem a bit sillier than some, it really isn't. Let's face it, so many of these Christmas movies revolve around someone deciding whether to be safe and sensible or whether to pursue their true love.

Cole is bright and pleasant enough in the lead role, making up for the fact that Runyan is a bit, well, dull (not his fault, he's just not given anything more to his character than whatever leads to him being compatible with Cole's character). The rest of the cast all hit their marks, smile or look concerned as required, and are just a-okay. Teagan Vincze does her best with a small role, standing out more than anyone else, but this is a film about ice sculpting that doesn't even have enough great ice sculptures dotted around. There are a few impressive pieces, but I was hoping to see a LOT more.

It may not have too much magic sprinkled over it, and it somehow feels a lot less Christmassy than many of the other Christmas movies I have watched in recent weeks, but this still isn't that bad. For this kind of thing.

4/10

Here is a large selection of Christmas movies to enjoy.
And American elves can pick the same set up here.

April Fool's Day (2008)

If you're going to do a remake then this is the way to go about it. For starters, the original movie wasn't exactly a perfect film and it wasn't exactly universally loved. Getting some bright young things in front of the camera to be put in danger is a given but it's a plus when you get someone behind the camera like Mitchell Altieri and Phil Flores (AKA The Butcher Brothers). The two men have already done some good stuff in the horror genre so I lift my hopes slightly when I see them attached to a project.

Taking the screenplay by Danilo Bach as a loose template (there are easy points of reference for those who have seen the original movie but this is also different enough to feel like quite a different beast), The Butcher Brothers also engage the help of Mikey Wigart in crafting something that's slick and disappointingly bloodless and amusingly ludicrous.

A prank goes horribly wrong and those involved find themselves threatened some time later. That's all you need to know. Yes, it's a mix of I Know What You Did Last Summer and the original April Fool's Day and Valentine. I don't care what you think of me, I LIKED those movies. I didn't love them but I liked them. Despite strong disapproval from almost everyone I know I actually really like Valentine (just such a great mix of old school slasher style and post-90210 teen sheen) so there you have my position on such glossy fare, for what it's worth.

April Fool's Day has some fun moments, and the cast has a couple of decent starlets in the shape of Scout Taylor-Compton and Taylor Cole, but it's all just a bit too bland to be solidly entertaining. The fact that it comes from The Butcher Brothers makes the tame nature of the movie even more of a disappointment and it's not helped by the rest of the cast - Josh Henderson, Joe Egender, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Samuel Child, etc - looking as if they have wandered in from the set of Cruel Intentions 5 or The Skulls 6 (both of which are sequels that I'm well aware don't exist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . yet).

I wouldn't go out of my way to see this again, and I certainly wouldn't rush out to buy it, but if it was on I could manage to sit through some of it. And if I see it anywhere at a bargain price I may well just have to buy it to satisfy my DVD-buying addiction.

5/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/April-Fools-Day-Scout-Taylor-Compton/dp/B0012OTRWA/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1342638801&sr=1-2