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The Magical Christmas Tree
USA 2021
produced by Gregory Hatanaka, Nicole D'Angelo, Chris Spinelli, Benny Tjandra, Linda S. Wong (co), Louis DeStefano (co), Shane Ryan (co) for CineRidge Entertainment/Cinema Epoch
directed by Scott Hillman
starring Socks Whitmore, Ky Mullen, Shane Ryan, Chris Spinelli, Raven Miles, Jaclyn Marfuggi, Matthew Capitanio, Leonard Zhang, Johnny Avila, Johnny Mask, Shoko Rice, Louis DeStefano, Linda S. Wong, Frank Paras jr, Damion Damaske, John McCoy (voice)
written by Scott Hillman
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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Young Pace (Socks Whitmore) is a bookkeeper at an accounting firm in
Hollywood - and that's about how close she'll ever come to Hollywood fame
... which doesn't bother her one bit as there's one thing she loves in her
life, and that's predictability. And what could be more predictable than a
steady office job looking at featureless numbers? Thus Pace also isn't a
fan of Christmas, as it's a certain disruption to the usual order of
things. But usually Pace can duck the holidays - only not this year, when
her turbo-capitalist boss Strickling (Shane Ryan) has a
Christmas
Carol-like epiphany and decides they need to have the perfect
Christmas party at the office. And thus he hands out tasks to all his
staff - and Pace is tasked with getting a Christmas tree, but not just any
plastic Christmas tree from the shops but an actual tree from the
woods, and it needs to be magical, too. Now this is LA, and fir trees
don't grow there in any large quantities, but Pace gets a tip where to go,
and once there an unexpectedly helpful park ranger (Leonard Zhang)
actually points her in the right direction. However, it seems the trees in
this part of the woods are under the protection of elf Buddy (Ky Mullen),
and initially he leaves nothing untried to keep her from her task - but
she's not one to give up, and rather unexpectedly, the two grow on one
another ... Now without wanting to come across as a general
sourpuss, I'm not really big on Christmas movies, as the wholesomeness
overload inherent to the genre just doesn't do it for me. But this one is
good fun, as despite in principle sticking to the formula, it has a
completely wacky side to it, best (but not only) exemplified in Shane
Ryan's character, who seems to live through every Christmas classic
(including Die Hard) in turbo speed. On top of that, there's
certainly something to love about a film that has a young woman in a
business suit stumbling through the woods carrying an ax. And actually
several supporting characters are giving their time to shine in comedy
skits. So in all, plenty good laughs that really soften the formula for
the better.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Thanks for watching !!!
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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