Chuck's Movie Breakdown

       Hey guys, Chuck here. And today, we're taking a look at one of the most disliked Christmas movies of all time: 2004's Christmas with the Kranks. Based on the novel Skipping Christmas by John Grisham (yes, THAT John Grisham), this movie from director Joe Roth stars Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd, Austin Pendleton, Jake Busey, Cheech Marin, Julie Gonzalo, and M. Emmett Walsh.        The movie tells the story of Luther and Nora Krank, whose daughter Blair is leaving the country and heading to Peru as part of the U.S. Peace Corps. After Blair leaves, Luther runs some numbers on how much he and Nora spend towards the Christmas holiday, and compares them to the cost of a cruise trip, and makes easily the most idiotic decision ever. When at home with Nora, Luther lays out a plan to take a cruise for the Christmas holiday and completely skip out on celebrating Christmas. No presents, no tree, no fancy dinner party. A complete boycott....

      Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, James Cameron has returned to the world of Pandora with Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third chapter of the Avatar franchise. This movie features a cast that includes Sam Worthington, Zöe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Oona Chaplin, David Thewlis, Jack Champion, and Sigourney Weaver.       So, it's been a year since Jake Sully, Neytiri, and their children have settled in with the ocean dwelling Metkayina clan,  and they are still struggling to grieve over the death of their eldest son Neteyam. However, they must now contend with the escalating conflict on Pandora and face a dangerous Na'vi clan: the volcano dwelling Mangkwan, aka the Ash People, who have joined forces with Col. Miles Quaritch and his Recombinants.        Okay, so when it comes to the overall narrative, it fall in three places. One is, of course, Jake's efforts to keep as many people safe from the wrath of the humans as possible, and despite...

      Hey guys, Chuck here. One of the most iconic Christmas specials is A Charlie Brown Christmas.  Well, in 2002, the special was complimented with a new collection of Yuletide shorts packaged together under the title of Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales .         The shorts included such instances of the Peanuts gang in various Yuletide situations. For instance, in the short "Happy Holidays from Snoopy," Snoopy tries to get Lucy to skate with him, but she only want to skate with Schroeder, who rejects her. Later, Snoopy dresses as a bell ringing Santa Claus, and winds up getting accosted by Lucy and Linus' little brother Rerun. Also,.while playing the accordion, Lucy calls out Snoopy's choice of playing the song "Oh Susanna" for not being a particularly good fit for Christmas, which leads him to change songs.         In the short "Yuletide Greetings from Linus," Linus looks to send a Christmas card to a girl who chan...

      Hey guys, Chuck here. While the original Die Hard is more frequently viewed as a Christmas movie, its 1990 sequel, Die Hard 2, is somewhat overlooked in regards of being a Christmas movie. However, much like its predecessor, Die Hard 2 is set around the Christmas holiday, so it's certainly worth talking about at Christmas time.        So, in this 1990 film, Bruce Willis returns as John McClane, who since the incident at Nakatomi Plaza has transferred to the Los Angeles Police Department, where he is a Detective Lieutenant. However, we see him at Dulles International Airport in Washington DC, where he is waiting for his wife, Holly, whose plane should be arriving soon.       Unfortunately, the airport and surrounding area come under siege from a renegade U.S. military unit under the leadership of Col. William Stuart, whose goal is to use the airport to rendezvous with General Ramon Esperanza, who is on a plane bound for Dulles,...

       Hey guys, Chuck here. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is the much anticipated sequel to the 2023 breakout hit Five Nights at Freddy's.  Based on the game franchise by Scott Clayton, this movie was, once again, produced by Universal Pictures and Blumhouse, and sees the return of director Emma Tammi, and stars Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, and Matthew Lillard, who are joined by newcomers Skeet Ulrich, McKenna Grace, Teo Briones, Freddy Carter, and Wayne Knight, with the voices of Kellen Goff, MatPat, and Megan Fox.        So, it's been a couple years since the events of the first movie, and while Mike Schmidt has found some peace in his life, his sister Abby is hopeful to reunite with the animatronics she befriended at Freddy's, while Vanessa Shelly is struggling to cope with the trauma she suffered years of due to her psychotic father William Afton. Meanwhile, a team of paranormal investigators are able to locate the ORIGINAL ...

       Hey guys, Chuck here. In 2009, Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda produced a standalone sequel to Yonda's award winning short The Life and Death of a Pumpkin . Taking on the yuletide holiday, the 2009 short The Life and Death of a Christmas Tree was released on the BlameSociety channel on YouTube as part of an event called Comedy Thunder.         Much like the previous short, The Life and Death of a Christmas Tree showcases the cycle of a fir tree, from being cut from its roots in the forest, to being placed in a tree stand, to being decorated for Christmas, and finally being undecorated and taken outside, where it's tossed in a wood chipper. And, the story is told entirely from the perspective of the tree itself, narrating the events in the first person perspective.        Now, unlike The Life and Death of a Pumpkin , where the pumpkin's fear and anguish came off as natural and the humor felt organic, in The Life and Death...

        Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, it's the holiday season once again, which means it's time for some fun Christmas reviews. And, while in the past, this has been done in the form of 12 Reviews of Christmas , I feel as though I've exhausted so many Christmas titles worth talking about, that there simply isn't enough to warrant twelve days of them. So, going forward, there will instead be a handful of Christmas reviews spread intermittently throughout the month of December.         And, we're kicking off our Christmas reviews with the 2001 direct-to-video Disney special Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse . For some background, in the year 1999, Disney aired a series called Mickey Mouse Works , which introduced a new collection of shorts starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. However, after two seasons, Disney replaced it with the similarly themed House of Mouse , which saw Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, along with...