Film Reviews by VB

I find I enjoy some dramatisations of true stories, and this is one of them. Of course, the acting skills of Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks make it gripping, but the story itself does the work. A good evening's viewing.

I liked this character that Sandra Bullock played. I love this sort of comedy anyway. We recently watched the first film, and enjoyed this character, smart, feisty and funny. I wondered how they could possibly do a follow-up but this managed it, without leading us to think that there would be more films to follow. There was enough pathos in the two lead characters' stories to make it more human.

This film was well cast with strong actors and very well done, excellent. The sadness is the essence of the story.

This is a fun musical, with quite a few memorable numbers, I love Hernando's Hideaway and then there's Hey There! You with the Stars in your eyes and more besides. It's a good reminder of how things used to be.

The acting was the best it could be, especially Eddie Redmayne, the story well told, and overall well portrayed (that is, the settings, and 60s portrayal) . I think my husband was a bit reluctant to watch this film but he was very happy with it, it surprised him. We thoroughly enjoyed this film.

I don't agree with another person who says that Oscars are often given to people portraying people with a disability as it somehow fails to acknowledge the talent of the actor. I still haven't seen My Left Foot, but found Eddie Redmayne's work excellent. Having said that, if you are able-bodied it must be very hard to stay in a heap and portray increasing disability as in this case or permanent disability (I think, for My Left Foot).

I enjoy this film, a rather typical American Christmas film showing that Santa Claus is real, and the hilarious way that Scott Calvin, a divorced father disturbs Santa Claus on his rooftop, who then slips to his 'death' (a wave bye bye suggests he wasn't dead, but magic-ed away). Scott and his son are forced to finish the night's work and Scott becomes the new Santa because he had put on the Santa outfit. It's a fun and heart warming film for all the family, showing how he re-connects with his son. A cute aspect of the story is the way that children just know he's Santa and sit on his knee and tell him what they want for Christmas, and generally follow him. I love to watch it most Christmases

Following The Santa Clause and The Santa Clause 2, this brings the story to sabbotage by Jack Frost who wants to become Santa Clause himself, with terrible consequences. Santa Claus suddenly has a price tag with visitors to The North Pole charging for everything in a usual consumerism slant. Santa (Tim Allen) determines to get things back to normal and succeeds. Lots of wonderful touches. I would guess filmed almost immediately after The Santa Clause 2. We found it fun.