northwellschick

I've been laid up with a broken leg, so perhaps that may account for a bit of my restlessness, but this movie is flat out way too long! Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds are both great at being Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds in most things. Elf is my favorite Christmas Movie and that's nearly entirely because of Ferrell and the stealth genius of Favreau. (okay, and Bob Newhart and Zooey Deschanel)

This rewarding of celebrities that can carry a tune, by offering them a lead in a musicals should really stop. This really should've been called, "Fa La La Land", as not one lead could hold a note for more than a second, unless it was featured as a party trick and the end of the songs. This gave a sameness to most of the numbers, (although, "Good Afternoon" was a hoot) and showed Reynolds to have pitch but not musical training at all. That goes double for tap numbers, so carefully filmed, in an attempt to obscure that those 3 months of crash-course lessons was a year too short. Oh, and speaking of filming, these musical numbers are easily the most chaotic and random I've ever seen on film. Giant wide shots galore and seemingly not focus on anyone or anything in particular.

I get celebs are needed to bring in the big buck, its what has almost ruined B'way and the Tonys for the past 25 years, but just brining Octavia Spencer in isn't enough. There have got to be big names with big musical talent, and if there aren't..... this could've easily worked better as a shorter, non-musical comedy. Didn't hate it, wouldn't watch it again.