Michael's Christmas Movie Guide: It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)

 

Very charming and quite funny Christmas themed comedy.

It Happened on 5th Avenue started life as an idea for a film for Frank Capra's production company, Liberty Films. It was going to be directed by Capra himself, but Capra found a Christmas themed movie he liked a bit better, called It's a Wonderful Life, a film he wanted to make much more. So the film was given to producer/director Roy Del Ruth. It also became the first film made for the Allied Artist company.

This film is a very charming Christmas classic that deserves to be better known. It is very funny, the characters are quite likable, the story is good and most of all it just has a great charm to it. It is a very happy feel good movie that just feels so naturally happy and never forced. On top of that is is just perfectly cast.  Victor Moore, Don DeFore, Ann Harding, Charles Ruggles and Gale Storm were all just perfect, and really don't feel like actors, but rather the characters they are playing. Also very charming in a brief role is Edward Brophy, who my fellow Disney fans may recognize as the voice of Timothy Mouse in Dumbo. This is just a Christmas classic that deserves to be much better known.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/274279%7C0/It-Happened-On-th-Avenue.html

Movie Review: The Good Dinosaur

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland


















Michael's Movie Grade:A-

Review: While more "safe" than Inside Out, this is still an excellent film in it's own right. Peter Sohg, a Pixar animator since Finding Nemo, makes his first feature film a great worthwhile movie, and I am happy to see what he does in the future.

The best thing about this film is the interactions with the characters, and it's respect for it's audience. It never cops out, and treats it's audience like they have minds in their heads. It is not afraid to have quiet nice scenes that never feel they have to over-explain anything to it's audience. One scene with Spot and Arlo talking about their families is simply fantastic, and very beautiful. This film has many moments like this that make the film well worth watching.

The film has a fantastic folk music score, and as a folk fan I love it. It is truly lovely, and I recommend staying through the credits just to listen to this music.

Though some may have problems with Arlo's design (I didn't), the animation is beautiful of the type we have grown to except from Pixar.

While this lacks the experimentation and originality of Inside Out, it shouldn't be judged by that but instead enjoyed as the great film it is.

But don't go away we have a short to review...

Michael's Movie Grade: A

Review: Sanjay's Super Team is an excellent semi-autobiographical film about the film's director Sanjay Patel's childhood. It is touching and sweet, as well as having excellent animation. The relationship between the father and son is sweet. The character design is fantastic. This is a personal film and you can see watching it why this short was so important to the director.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: The Peanuts Movie

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland


















Michael's Movie Grade:A+

Review: Peanuts' fifth theatrical feature is the best one since the first, and the best film to come from Blue Sky Studios thus far. This is a greatly written, and perfectly animated movie, and a must see for every Peanuts fan. Charles Schultz would be proud of this excellent film.

The animation in this film is perfect. It embraces the art of the classic comic strips and animated specials and movies, while adding something unique along the way. This movie is just a joy to look at.

The characters are written perfectly. They are still the people we have grown to love. Charlie Brown is just as Charlie Browny as ever. Snoopy and Woodstock are a delight to see. Linus, Lucy, Franklin, Schroeder, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Pig Pen, Patty, and really just everybody else were perfectly realized.  However every scene with Sally was just perfect. She has always been one of my favorite cartoon characters and this film just perfectly shows why. Look around for quite a few characters thrown in their specifically for us Peanuts fans.

The Peanuts Movie needs to go down and history as a classic, this is one of the greatest family films, and maybe even films of any kind of recent years.

However we are not done here we have a short to review...

Michael's Movie Grade:C

Review: This film feels like it is over as soon as it begins, but it is still a fun short with some good slapstick. While not as funny as Scrat was in the first Ice Age film, he is still in good form here. This cartoon is quite entertaining but feels like it need more time to truly take off (pun intended).

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: The Last Witch Hunter

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland


















Michael's Movie Grade:D+

Review: A mediocre film that has a surprisingly well done climax.

The characters are extremely cliche, and none of them are truly interesting. Much of the plot also we have seen elsewhere and done better, though it is watchable here. In fact, nearly everything in this film has been done too much in other films.

However this film has a surprisingly good climax. It works, because director Breck Eisner, lets this scene be told just as much in the atmosphere as in the action. This scene is exciting, and very well done. It is unfortunate none of the rest of the film is on par with this climax.

A twist at the end feels unnecessary, and unfortunately brings the worst part of the film directly after the best scene. This is poorly handled and feels like the filmmakers are just trying too hard to play it safe.

Overall this is not that good of a film, but the climax is so good it may make it worth seeing.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: Goosebumps

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland


















Michael's Movie Grade:C

Review: Enjoyable time passer, nothing more, nothing less. This film is unspectacular, but nothing you will regret seeing.

The best thing about this film is Slappy the Dummy. The puppetry on him was fantastic, and he was voiced great by Jack Black (I preferred this performance over his live action one in this film where he has an accent that is impossible to guess what accent it is). While not exactly terrifying, he is legitimately creepy. Unfortunately with all the monsters in this film he is the only one given enough to do to be an actual character (though the camera seems to fixate on a clown that is barely given anything to do).

The romance is cliche and overly predictable, but harmless. The jokes are hit and miss, but those that do hit are surprisingly good. Unfortunately a twist on a twist happens near the end and without giving anything away is awful.

Overall an enjoyable time passer, but will never be remembered as a great movie.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: Walk in the Woods

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland




















Michael's Movie Grade:C

Review: Quite enjoyable movie, but I can't help but feel it could have been better.

The best thing about the film was simply seeing the beautiful scenery of the trail. This film simply captures the beauty of nature very well. Considering this film is a movie about people going for one last adventure, this enhances the film a lot.

The story is a quite good story, and the characters are quite likable. However both do feel like they could be better fleshed out. I simply feel I could have known the characters better, and could have been more emotionally involved in the story. However both are still likable. The acting is quite good, and defiantly adds to the likability of the characters. Robert Redford, and Nick Nolte, are very important to the likability of this film, Emma Thompson is also great though her character feels underused, and Kristen Schaal's character marks a definite highlight of the film (though I can't be the only one who couldn't help, but think about Mabel from Gravity Falls).

Overall this is a good film, but unfortunately it feels like it could have been better.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: Hotel Transylvania 2

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland



















Michael's Movie Grade: C

Review:Only occasionally funny animated comedy is helped by good characters and great animation.

The greatest thing about this film is that there is a lot of great character animation in it. The animation brings the characters alive, and brings a great energy to the film. It is very expressive, and very energetic and is just fun to watch.

If not as developed as they could be, the characters are quite likable. They may not be the most memorable characters, but they do have a real likability.

 The main problem with the film is that it is only funny at times, and it has more times where it is not funny than times where it is funny. None of those funny moments though are laugh at loud funny as they are kind of humorous. For a comedy there just weren't as many good laughs as there should have been.

Overall an enjoyable film with great animation, and good characters, but sadly fairly low on laughs.