The Christmas TV Strategy Guide 2021

Early start for this one but if you are up early then the first of the Sponge Bob films is well worth a watch; it has the usual surreal humour coupled with plenty of charm and more than a few catchy songs

Speaking of catchy songs, I’m sure you’ll find a couple in these two films what with them being two musicals from the Golden Age of musicals and that.

Genndy Tartakovsky is a genius, you only have to see the dodgeball episode of Dexter’s Lab to understand that. The problem with this film is that you can really feel like its been focus tested to its limit and its only thanks to Tartakovsky that the film remains as good as it does. Hopefully he’ll finally be able to make that Popeye film thats been threatened for a long time now

Pulling off a sequel to a near perfect film should be an impossible task but Pixar keep managing to do it; Toy Story 2 managed to find new places to take its characters despite it feeling like their story was all told. Same with Finding Nemo, given how that ended a sequel should never have worked, and yet somehow not only did they make a good film but they made one that was nearly as good as the original. Just don’t mention Cars 2, alright?

The latest remake of West Side Story didn’t seem to land that well, probably because it came out the week before the latest Spider-Man. That means it might be a good time to go back to the original, so have some context about the film then get it watch

This is, apparently, the only 100% perfect film. Is it though? I mean, thats a really objective title to give to something that really should be considered from a subjective perspective. But we don’t have time for that now, Hugh Grant is really good so lets just say its true, that you should watch it and we’ll move on

Now I remember really enjoying King Arthur at the cinema, it suffers from similar issues to other big budget Guy Ritchie films like a bit of an unfocussed plot and no real emotional connection to draw you in to it. But, this one has Jude Law in a great turn as the bad guy so I think its well worth a go. Taken 2 is a similar ball dropper, in that a great idea behind it (hero who murdered loads of folk in a previous film has to face the consequences of said murders) but never really does anything with it and just ends up treading similar ground as the first film

More Eastwood with another in the Dirty Harry series, the quality is on somewhat of a drop off but Clint is always watchable. Then there’s Bloodsport again just in case you missed it the first time

This film seemed to take as long to get made as it took to get the definitve version of the first film. Was it worth it? Sure was, it looks an absolute treat and fully inhabits the world of the first Blade Runner without disrespecting the original. But if it all ends up being a bit too serious, then you can watch some daft sword fights in the film after it

No clue why this is on quite so late, its a delight of a film. Sure, as its a Wes Anderson film it is a bit of an acquired taste but if you enjoyed his version of Fantastic Mr Fox (actually thats the best version of a Roald Dahl book, Matilda is the best live action adaptation) then you should have a great time with this