Even though this is a classic, this one wears on me a lil. I give it a **
Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) and his wife Ellen are hosting Christmas this year at their home. Clark is wishing for it to be a perfect Christmas visit complete with Decorations, the family and a large Christmas bonus…which he is counting on in order to purchase a pool.
Absolutely everything that can go wrong, goes wrong. He insists on having a large light display which affects electricity a practically the whole neighborhood. His cousin in law who dumps waste from his camper down into the sewer system, having to deal with family members, being locked in his attic, accidentally setting one of his senile relatives cat on fire etc. with all this going on, he tries handle everything with a smile on his face. However, when he finds that his boss is stingy with bonuses this year, he flips out!!
Directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik
Starring: Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Juliette Lewis
Review by Julie C.
Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) a mechanical engineer is on an 120 year journey in a hibernation pod on the ship, the Avalon. There are 5,000 other souls on the ship. Thirty years into the trip, an asteroid causes major malfunctions that causes Jim’s pod to open. He is alone on the ship for one year by himself except for an android bartender named Arthur. He has everything else he needs to survive. During this time frame Jim becomes depressed and contemplates committing suicide until he notices a beautiful woman. Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence) is a young writer who is looking forward to getting to “the other side” and writing about her experiences. Jim is able to view her file and find out a lot about the young woman and he finds himself falling in love with her. He struggles with the decision to cause her pod to malfunction so that they can fall in love. He confides in Arthur about his “secret.”
There was once a doctor who had an unreal ability. This doctor could talk to animals and his name was Dolittle. The Queen of England was so appreciative of his work that she gave him land that he used for his business. For a time, his life was everything he hoped. He had his animals and his wife, Lily, and the adventures that they shared. Then Lily left to go on an adventure that came to an unfortunate end. Dolittle then shut down his life and business until a young boy, Stebbins, came with a patient and a young girl arrived with a request from the queen. After tending to the patient, Dr. Dolittle then had an audience with the Queen. It seems Dr. Dolittle’s adventures were not over since the Queen was dying and he knew of only one thing that could cure her. So, with his animals and his young apprentice they went to search the globe for her majesty’s only hope.
(The Fugitive is based on a tv show in the 60’s as well as a real-life murder mystery.)
This sequel finds Eggsy settling into a more comfortable role. He is set on having a romantic/long-term relationship with Tilde, a young princess he saved in the first Kingsman movie. One evening, Eggsy is attacked by a rejected Kingsman candidate who lost his arm in a skirmish with him in the failed attempt to destroy the world. Charlie Hesketh, the failed candidate, uses his cybernetic arm to access the Kingsman database to find all of the members and destroys the majority of them. Merlin and Eggsy are the only two Kingsman left because they were not at home or on Kingsman’s property when it was destroyed. While Merlin and Eggsy are commiserating over a bottle of whiskey, found in a secret doomsday safe, they find that they are not alone. They have a similar cousin-type organization in the United States who call themselves the “Statesman”. They travel to America to find that the whiskey company is a front for the Statesman.
This action/spy comedy starts out with a probationary secret service agent, Lee Unwin, sacrificing his life to save Harry Hart (Colin Firth) from certain death. Hart blames himself for the death and gives the widow and his young son a medal with a phone number on the back for assistance if needed.