A Recipe for Seduction

This is arguably the most anticipated movie of 2020. Is it the one we asked for, or the one we expected? well no. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, KFC and Lifetime paired up to make a movie. Yes, you read that right, KFC made a romantic movie. In their defense it is only a mini movie that runs 16 minutes. Why they would make this, or anyone would agree to making this, is anyone’s guess.

‘A Recipe for Seduction’ stars Mario Lopez (Saved by the Bell), Justene Alpert (Bosh), Tessa Munro (The Adventures of Craig’s List), and Chad Doreck (iCarly). A young heiress struggles (Alpert) between picking between a rich suitor (Doreck), and the new house chef (Lopez). Besides the chef’s good looks he’s also bringing 11 herbs and spices to the table.

There’s a lot to unpack here. Lifetime is already known for their cheesy movies, but now they’re teaming up with KFC? It’s all a glorified stunt to bring views to KFC, and guess what? It worked, I’m writing a review about it, and the internet is obsessed with it. Is the movie good? No, it’s a train wreck. It’s the soap opera you see in the trailer. I give KFC props though, it gets us all talking about them. For that alone I give it a 5/10.

A California Christmas

‘A California Christmas’ is a Netflix original and is currently sitting at number 1 on their top ten, which is to be expected since it is Christmas time after all. Forewarning though, this movie has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas other than taking place around Christmas time. It has one Christmas song which is right before the credits, so if you’re looking for a Christmas movie, look somewhere else. This is your basic romantic Hallmark channel movie. It stars Lauren Swickard (Room for Murder), Josh Swickard (Roped), Ali Afshar (American Wrestler: The Wizard), David Del Rio (Pitch Perfect), and Amanda Detmer (Final Destination). ‘A California Christmas’ is about a playboy who lives a fast and carefree lifestyle, his mom threatens to cut him off unless he can get a ranch to sell their land to her company. He poses as ranch hand to try and persuade them to sell, but quickly falls in love instead.

After watching the trailer, I didn’t have a high bar for this movie, like I mentioned earlier it just appeared to be a cheesy Hallmark movie, but being Christmas time, I figured I would give it a shot. First off the main love interests are husband and wife in real life, which is pretty cool. You can actually imagine them on a ranch somewhere spending their life together. Even though it’s not a Christmas movie, this movie surprised me. It’s actually really good. The casting is great, and you find yourself actually invested in it, and rooting for them. David Del Rio plays a great part as the comic relief. If you’re looking for a good romantic movie, I recommend this one, I give it a 8/10.

Godmothered

‘Godmothered’ is a 2020 Disney Christmas comedy starring Jillian Bell (Workaholics), Jane Curtain (3rd Rock from the Sun), Stephnie Weir (MADtv), Mary Elizabeth Ellis (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Santiago Cabrera (Transformers: The Last Knight), and Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers).

‘Godmothered’ follows the story of a fairy god mother in training (Bell) who is determined to save fairy god mothers everywhere by bringing back happily ever after to humanity once again. (Bell) finds a note from a kid wishing to find her one true love, she must now travel to earth to fulfill the girls wish. One problem though, the kid is now a grown adult with two kids who is also cynical in the love department.

The story takes place at Christmas time, but that’s about it. Other than that it has no elements of Christmas, so I wouldn’t really call it a Christmas movie. Jillian Bell plays a ditzy blonde, which she does in most of her roles. Take workaholics for instance, same role, she’s just a fair god mother in this one. Which speaking of Workaholics first Disney casts Adam Devine in a new original movie, and now Jillian Bell. Definitely interesting choices from Disney, I find both hilarious, but their comedy is pretty adult. Back to the movie at hand, other than having nothing to do with Christmas, it’s hard to get invested in the characters. They say Mackenzie’s (Fisher) husband died, and she doesn’t believe in love, and that’s about it. It doesn’t go anymore in depth than that. It focus’s on Eleanor’s (Bell) incompetence, which has it’s funny parts, but it doesn’t give the story any substance. It’s cute and it’s an okay watch, but overall it’s forgettable. You can check this one out on Disney +, I give it a 5.5/10

Uncle Frank

‘Uncle Frank’ is a 2020 Amazon prime original drama/comedy. It has a stellar cast starring Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind), Sophia Lillis (IT), Peter Macdissi (The Losers), Steve Zahn (Saving Silverman), Judy Greer (Ant-Man), Margo Martindale (Sneaky Pete), and Stephen Root (Office Space). ‘Uncle Frank’ follows the story of Frank (Bettany), and his 18 year old niece Beth (Lillis). Frank is an English professor at a University in New York City and his niece is a new student there. She’s always looked up to, and admired her Uncle, but there is parts of his life he’s kept hidden from his family. Once Frank’s father and Beth’s grandfather dies, they must travel to their small, redneck, town for his funeral. Frank must find a way to come out of the closet to his close minded family while struggling with his alcoholism.

The trailer I saw didn’t really give much info on what it was about, so I went into it blind. This is a pretty heavy movie, it takes place in 1973 when the world wasn’t as open to the gay community, and unfortunately they were heavily persecuted. This movie only scratches the surface on what the gay community has had to endure, but it does a good job at it. It’s a great story about love and acceptance. Paul Bettany is a great actor and should be a house hold name, every role he plays he is incredible in. ‘Wimbledon’, ‘A Beautiful Mind’, ‘A Knights Tale’, etc… Sophia Lillis is a great up and coming actress and plays a great part beside Bettany. This movie is worth seeing, I score it a 8.5/10.

Freaky

‘Freaky’ is a 2020 horror/comedy from Blumhouse starring Vince Vaughn (Wedding Crashers), Kathryn Newton (Blockers), Celeste O’ Connor (Wetlands), Misha Oserovich (The Goldfinch), and Uriah Shelton (Lifted).

‘Freaky’ is slasher horror film that is about a serial killer (Vaughn), he finds Millie (Newton), a teenage girl, sitting by herself, waiting for her ride after a football game. He chases her down and stabs her, something freaky happens and they end up switching bodies. Now Millie has 24 hours to stab the killer with the same knife, or they will permanently be stuck in each others bodies.

When I first saw this trailer it reminded me of ‘Happy Death Day’ mixed with ‘Freaky Friday’, which makes sense because Blumhouse also put out ‘Happy Death Day’. However, after watching it, it’s more like ‘Freaky Friday’ mixed with ‘Friday the 13th’. You have this big, masked, killer stalking his victims, then he switches bodies with a teenage girl. I like the fresh take on the slasher movie. It has a good story line, and Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton really nail their roles when they “switch” bodies. Vince Vaughn channels his inner David Rose, and you can see him run around acting like a teenage girl, and who doesn’t want to see that? This is a must see, I give it a 7/10.

Christmas Chronicles 2

‘Christmas Chronicles 2’ is a Netflix 2020 Christmas comedy that’s the follow up to the 2018 film ‘The Christmas Chronicles’. Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn, Darby Camp, and Judah Lewis all return from the first one. Outside of them, ‘Christmas Chronicles 2’ brings in Julian Dennison (Hunt for the Wilderpeople), Jahzir Bruno (The Witches), and Tyrese Gibson (Fast & Furious).

Belsnickel (Dennison) is a disgruntled elf who is now human, who intends to get revenge on Santa by going to the North Pole and stealing Christmas forever. He must use Kate (Camp) as his ticket to get into the north pole by tricking her.

After watching the trailer, this did not look like it would be good. Why make a second one? Because money, that’s why, that’s the driving factor to everything, and I figured that’s all that would be behind it. I was happy to be wrong, even though they wrapped up everything in the first one. This one brings a fresh new plot that makes it worth it. Of course Kurt Russell has an even bigger rock n roll scene. The run time is a little long at two hours, but it doesn’t lag much, so time isn’t an issue. In the end this is a movie the whole family will enjoy. It brings a heartfelt message across with a rebellious teen finding acceptance and love, a scared kid finding his courage, and a rebellious elf finding his way. I give it a 7/10

Alien Xmas

‘Alien Xmas’ is a 2020 Netflix children/family Christmas movie starring Keythe Farley (Mass Effect 2), Dee Bradley Baker (American Dad!), and Kaliayh Rhambo (SEAL Team). ‘Alien Xmas’ follows the story of an alien race called the Klepts, they have no joy and steal everything and anything they can. Their newest plan is to go to earth and set up a machine to turn off earth’s gravitational pull. Once it is off, all of earth’s possessions will float into space where the Klepts will steal it. They send X, the smallest of the Kelpts, to the North Pole to set up the machine, but he soon changes his ways and learns the true meaning of Christmas.

I wouldn’t necessarily call this one a movie, more of a short or a Christmas special, it’s only 42 minutes long and after credits the run time is only about 38/39 minutes. It has an old retro, old-school feel to it. The animation style is done similar to the old Christmas special ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’, and that’s pretty cool. It’s like most Christmas movies, like ‘The Grinch’, where there is a grumpy character who stays grumpy until he learns the true meaning of Christmas. We’ve seen it a million times. However, they put a unique twist on it, and bring back the old animation style. For that ‘Alien Xmas’ is a winner this holiday season that the whole family will enjoy. I give it a 7/10

Get Duked!

‘Get Duked!’ is a 2020 Amazon Prime original English horror/comedy starring Jonathan Aris (The End of the F***ing World), Samuel Bottomley (Tyrannosaur), Viraj Juneja (Pandora), Rian Gordon (Final Score), and Lewis Gribben (T2 Trainspotting). Four teenage boys are sent to compete in the Duke of Edinburgh Award trek across the highlands in order to help turn their lives around. While hiking across the highlands the boys start getting hunted by a mysterious man and woman.

There isn’t a lot of good horror/comedies out there, and I always compare them to ‘Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil’. While most don’t stack up to it, ‘Get Duked!’ actually does. It’s original, witty, and funny. There were several parts where I laughed out loud. It has the perfect blend of horror mixed with comedy. This one is worth the watch, i give it a 9/10.

The War with Grandpa

‘The War with Grandpa’ is a 2020 comedy with a pretty simple concept a kid gets in a “war” with his grandpa. When an elderly grandad moves in with his daughter, he takes over his grandson’s room, which puts his grandson in the attic. His grandson declares a declaration of war, and pranks on each other soon ensue. ‘The War with Grandpa’ stars Robert De Niro (Raging Bull), Oakes Fegley (Pete’s Dragon), Uma Thurman (Kill Bill), Rob Riggle (Night School), Cheech Marin (Up in Smoke), Colin Ford (Daybreak), and Christopher Walken (Seven Psychopaths).

So a couple of varying opinions here, I went to see it with my wife. She was excited about the movie with the bar set really high, I on the other hand didn’t think it looked too good so I went in with the bar low. I was really surprised to see the star studded cast, I wasn’t expecting this movie to be that loaded. The premise, I thought was a little dumb, instead of getting into a prank war, why didn’t the grandpa just go and tell on him? But then we wouldn’t have a movie. Soon I forgot about that and waited to see what they were going to pull on each other. The pranks are funny and lighthearted. It’s an overall funny, lighthearted movie that the whole family will enjoy. Even though it didn’t live up to my wife’s expectations, it exceeded mine. I give it a 7/10

Wheels of Fortune.

‘Wheels of Fortune’, not to be confused with the popular game show ‘Wheel of Fortune’, is a 2020 comedy that you can currently find on Netflix. It isn’t really popular as it’s hard to find anything online about it, reviews, etc.. It stars Matt Jones (Breaking Bad), Noureen DeWulf (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past), John Ducey (Will & Grace), and Matty Cardarople (Stranger Things). Bo Jackson (Jones) is a redneck gearhead who never met his father, after his father dies, he finds out he is left in his very wealthy father’s will. In order to collect his inheritance he must compete in a series of races to prove he’s a winner/worthy of the money.

‘Wheels of Fortune’ has it’s funny moments, and the story is original. However it’s pretty predictable, you can pretty much guess what is going to happen at every turn, which makes it an okay movie. The cast isn’t strong enough to be a great movie. Jones, DeWulf, and Cardarople are all good actors/actresses but they’ve all been side role characters up to this point. It might have been a better movie with a different cast headlining. In the end I give a 5.5/10.