Film Review: The Fitzgerald Family Christmas

Okay, I'm not ashamed to admit that I've never seen an Ed Burns film before.  Not that I have anything against him or his films.  I just never have seen The Brothers McMullen.  Now that I've seen the Fitzgerald Family Christmas, I would like to see Brothers McMullen.

Not having the first film to compare, I can say that this one is entertaining.  I wasn't laughing out loud all the time, but the story was interesting, the acting solid and the film as a whole was entertaining.

There were predictable moments like the sister who was dating a much older guy and her brother who was dating a younger woman and what occurs when they decide to spend the weekend at a beach house.

The main plot of the film involves the estranged father of seven kids wanting to see his family again after he had deserted them some 20-30 years ago.  Ed Burns plays the loyal son who still lives with his mother and constantly works to bring this fractious family together every Christmas.  Now, he has to get them to vote on whether they want to spend it this year with their father.

A cute film.  It won't win any awards, but it's a nice holiday film.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Belated Positive Reviews

Here's a list of films I recommend seeing: Girl Rising - documentary about the importance of education for girls in poorer countries and how girls give back to their communities The Iceman - based on the life of mob hitman Richard Kuklinski.  It was a compelling film with some minor plot holes, but still captured my interest. Attack - a film by a Lebanese director about a Palestinian man who is a successful doctor in Israel.  Everything is going great until he finds out that his wife was a suicide bomber. Reluctant Fundamentalist - another terrorist film, only this one is about a man who is accused of being the mastermind of a terror cell, but he insists he's an innocent victim.  Is he telling the truth? Kon Tiki - the true story of a group of men who (in 1947) set out to prove whether a balsa wood raft made it across the pacific in ancient times.  It well done, and I loved how they filmed it in English as well as in Dutch. Disconnect - Some people didn't like
Read more

Film Review: Hitchcock

I found this movie entertaining... a bit too much so. As I watched this film I found myself not really connecting with it.  At first I couldn't understand why, but afterwards I realized it was because it didn't seem realistic.  It painted Alfred Hitchcock as a temperamental, spoiled child, and not the bossy, tyrant tales about him have told.  It is an entertaining film, though.  I would just take it with a grain of salt.
Read more

Belated Review: The Dukes

This movie is about a few former members of a do-wap (a capella) group who keep trying to get jobs making money performing their hits. Sadly, they haven't had much luck, instead doing lame TV commercials. Two of the leaders of the group (Robert Davi and Chazz Palmentari) work for their aunt in her Italian restaurant. Their goal is to settle down and open their own restaurant, but they have no money to do so. So without giving too much away, the film is a comedy about what capers these guys get into to try to get money to buy a restaurant. Robert Davi wrote and directed this film, which also stars Peter Bogdonovitch, as a sympathetic tour manager, and Miriam Margolyes as their Aunt Vee. :) There's some great familiar faces in this like Bruce Weitz (Hill Street Blues) and Joseph Campanella, who has a very nice, brief appearance in the film. :) Both Robert Davi and Chazz Palmintari can sing and they used to perform as singers before they became actors. Robert does sing in th
Read more