WWE Survivor Series 2020 (WWE Network) - So this aired on Sunday, November 22 and should have been a special night. 30 years ago tonight, The Undertaker made his debut. Also 30 years ago, I sat down and watched professional wrestling for the first time. I'll never forgot the strange and intimidating debut of this dead dude coming out with this red faced guy named Brother Love on Team DiBiase. Unfortunately, Survivor Series went from being one of the most important shows of the year to a pointless event and tonight was no exception. The highlight of the show was advertised as being a retirement ceremony for The Undertaker, so they brought out 15 or so of The Undertaker's closest friends and greatest opponents (including his kayfabe brother Kane in full wrestling gear for some reason when everyone else was wearing suits or street clothes) to say goodbye to him. After a final video package, all of them disappeared and Vince McMahon was in the ring and he gave a small introduction which led to a traditional 10 minute walk to the ring by The Undertaker. He spoke about 4 sentences, kneeled down to a shody looking hologram Paul Bearer, and began his everlong walk out of the arena for the final time. Maybe this whole thing would have played better in front of an audience, but even then it just seemed so pointless. Definitely a very anti-climatic end to a legendary career.
Rating: 2.50 out of 5 for the show itself. .50 out of 5 for the Undertaker retirement ceremony.
Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square (Netflix) - This Christmas musical event walks the fine line between being ridiculously cheesy and being the best feel-good watch so far this holiday season. On paper, we've seen this movie a lot especially in regards to Christmas as it's basically a simple Scrooge story with Christine Baranski coming to the small town she grew up in after the death of her father to basically evict everyone and destroy the town to mall developers. From a storyline standpoint, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense and her ability to make all the town residents (who are all surprisingly good at singing and dancing) up and leave with little notice is headscratching. However, the toe tapping relentless musical numbers, fun choreography (this was directed by chereographer Debbie Allen), and a supernatural Dolly Parton do a terrific job of making this a pretty solid and joyful movie.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
The Christmas Chronicles 2 (Netflix) - Kurt Russell returns as Santa Claus and this time Christopher Colombus (the first two Home Alone's and Harry Potter's) takes over as director in what should be a great Christmas movie, however to me it just fell a little short of expectations especially with the pedigree that it has. Clocking in at just under 2 hours, the movie feels a little long and starts to lose a little bit of steam around halfway through. The story is the young girl from the first movie ends up back in the North Pole and has to help Santa Claus save Christmas from an evil ex-elf played by Julian Dennison, whom you may recongize from the terrific Hunt for the Wilderpeople or Deadpool 2. This is where rating movies gets difficult as I've rated this and the Dolly Parton movie the same, but was pleased with the Dolly Parton movie and underwhelmed with this, but just because I was underwhelmed with this doesn't mean it was bad, just felt like it had potential for more.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Run (Hulu) - I didn't even realize until after watching it that Run was made by filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty who made one of the surprise movies of 2018, the John Chu computer desktop thriller Searching, which was far better than it had any right in being. Chaganty brings this same sort of edge of your seat entertainment off of the computer screen but into a home where Sarah Pauslon's wheelchair-bound homeschool child Chloe lives and is basically seperated from society. However, after getting a new prescription and getting close to graduating school and going to college, Chloe begins questioning her mom's motives. While you can largely predict where this is going, it's still a fun journey take and provides enough thrills to keep interesting. Sarah Paulson and newcomer Kiera Allen both give great performances and do a great job of fueling the tension throughout.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Superintelligence (HBO Max) - Melissa McCarthy stars in this movie where she plays a surprisingly normal character in Carol Peters, who's a little down on her luck when randomly an AI program who knows everything about her (and largely everyone else on the planet) begins talking to her using James Cordon's voice. Carol has to work with the superintelligent software as it decides whether or not to destroy humanity. While part An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (which is a terrific book by Hank Green for those that haven't read it) and part WarGames, this movie is slightly uneven as a romance plotline where Carol tries to get back together with her ex-boyfriend George (Bobby Cannavale) seems forced but also leads to one of the best scenes where George freaks out over meeting an idol of his. While, not the most sensical movie I've watched in a while, it was entertaining enough that it was worth a watch.
Rating: 3.25 out of 5.
Happiest Season (Hulu) - In a way this movie is the story of the Aunt that never brings a boyfriend but always brings a friend/roommate to Christmas with them. Happiest Season is a holiday romantic comedy about Harper (Mackenze Davis) going to her family Christmas with her girlfriend Abby (Kristen Stewart) despite her family not knowing about their relationship. This movie is fueled with a very strong supporting cast making up their family and friends including Aubrey Plaza, Alison Brie, and Schitt's Creek's Dan Levy, amongst many other familiar faces. This movie walks the thin line of being in the closet in a very light-hearted manor but at the same time does deal with the struggle of family acceptance and trying to not ruin Christmas, but also being your own person and trying to gain acceptance. I definitely got similar vibes to other family holiday stories like The Famiily Stone, this movie is heartfelt and entertaining.
Rating: 3.75 out of 5.
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