The Christmas TV Strategy Guide 2022 #12

You’d think they’d have ran out by now, but nope. And to be honest you’ve probably got the best 3 today, with Screaming, Cleo and Up the Khyber. Cleo has arguably one of the best jokes of the whole series (“Infamy! Infamy! They’ll all got it in for me!”) so you have that at the very least

Here we go, prime Day Off material here. Yes, this is the one with the Skeleton Warriors, something that to this day remains an iconic moment in the world of special effects. It’s just a big old fairy tale romp of a film and a great way to follow your breakfast

The original superhero movie, Superman still holds its ground amongst the current big budget crop of films thanks to 2 things; its commitment to the source material (something that it would lose a bit in the later films) and the solid gold performance by Christopher Reeve. If he wavers, then the film doesn’t work, but he’s brilliant. There’s that gif that goes around of the scene where you see him switch between Clark Kent and Superman just through his body language that tells you everything. And then you get a big action WWII film as dessert, so there you go

Yep, Phil’s Mystery Kick continues; this one leapt out thanks to the 5 stars and that its an Agatha Christie film. Now, after the 3-stars-for-Espcape-From-New-York debacle can we trust those stars? Thats the question, and I’ll certainly be rolling the dice on this one to see if its correct

So this is the ‘first’ film that was made before Death on The Nile with yet another Poirot in this film. Now, whilst Finney gives good Poirot (nominated for an Oscar don’cha know!) he’s still second place to Suchet. What this film has going for it is the bonkers cast (Lauren Bacall! Sean Connery! John Gielgud! Loads of them!) and it being directed by Sidney Lumet. This makes it easily the best film version of Poirot, much better than the modern remake

Honestly, I was expecting this to be terrible, Like, terrible based on the quality of the Sonic franchise in recent years. But, you know what, it was actually really good. You can put this down to Marsden being able to make you enjoy the relationship between him and an entirely computer generated character. Its one of the best performances of this type (the pinnacle still being Matthew Lillard in the first Scooby Doo film and if you say otherwise I will see you outside) and really the film is made or broken on it. Luckily, Marsden nails it. And then you have Jim Carrey giving it absolutely 110% in a way that he hasn’t done since Ace Ventura or The Mask. You can’t call it a scenery chewing performance as he simply swallows up all the scenery whole, right down his gullet. Its almost joyous, and it worth at least 2 of the stars by himself

It was always going to be tough to follow Skyfall and this film, despite a banger of an opener, lives up to that statement. Its hard to put your finger on exactly why but its more like a lot of little things; the plot is a bit too meandering, the introduction of Blofeld and SPECTRE itself falls flat, hell even the opening song isn’t great. Bautista is a great villain though, but then he’s great in everything

A perfect film.

A further loose canon action cop showcase, here giving you the beginning of that character as a cinematic force, and what we end up with several decades later. Thats a bit harsh on Statham to be fair; its not like Blitz is a bad film, its just an awfully generic film. Especially when compared to what is effectively its Grandad that did pretty much everything first and did it better

My favourite film, and one that I saw in the cinema this year which was brilliant. Although, it was slightly overshadowed by seeing it in a screen where some guy was sat there dressed as Michael Myers. Its was on Halloween so it did kinda of make sense at the time

A fantastic modern horror that Jordan Peele still hasn’t beaten yet. The concept is so good its hard to see how he will, but you never know

These music compilation shows on the BBC are always well worth watching, mainly thanks to the massive back catalogue of performances they have access to. I haven’t seen this one, but from the names it looks good plus I liked the idea of it showing songs that have ‘rock and roll’ in the title.

Nicole Kidman’s best film? I’d argue that, although its one that seems to have been forgotten. Which is a bit of a shame, as its fame hungry obsessed main character feels like it would still resonate in today’s social media based society