MovieMuse
T
he MovieMuse Reviews (MovieViews) database is a searchable collection of films that the team have watched, providing a comprehensive guide on what to watch and what to avoid. It provides a link to an in-depth review or a short opinion on the film and a rating, as well as a link to the film’s poster or DVD cover. For more recent entries we are also including a link to the film’s IMDb page and a trailer from YouTube.
You can search and sort the list by individual film names, genre, reviewer, score and other variables to inform you on whether a film is worth your time, or to inspire you for your next movie night.
We will also use the database to create periodic lists of the recommended films in all sorts of categories. These lists will be shared on the website and some will even come with a video.
| Poster | Movie | Year | Genre | Comments | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Christmas With The Coopers | 2015 | 4, 7 | A stellar cast for pretty standard christmas-fare as a middle class American family air their dirty laundry over Christmas. However, it could have been so much more but for the trite and annoying voice over. | 6 |
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Color Out of Space | 2019 | 11, 17 | There are plenty of bizarre scenes as Nic Cage and his family are slowly driven crazy by a crashed meteor, but despite the psychedelic cinematography and impressive score, this is far less interesting than the premise suggested. | 6 |
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Krampus | 2015 | 4, 9, 11 | Possibly the most terrifying of all Christmas horror movies due to certain scenes, but also one of the most amusing and well realised, with a good cast and a positive festive message amongst the carnage. | 7 |
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Bad Santa 2 | 2016 | 4, 5 | Deeply offensive and not particularly funny, this is a poor attempt to build on the themes of the first film and is almost certainly the worst film ever made that features two Oscar winners in its cast! | 3 |
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Christmas in Canaan | 2009 | 7 | This Hallmark production has several tear-jerking moments but is far from the usual sentimental Christmas fare, focusing on a friendship between two boys that crosses the racial divide in 1960s America, and is a heartwarming story with reasonable acting. | 6 |
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Home Alone | 1990 | 1, 4, 8 | Having not seen the film in the 30 years since its release I was expecting a trite and silly, slapstick comedy. But what I got was a fun and engaging family film that will now be on my annual Christmas watching list. | 8 |
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The Forgotten Toys | 1995 | 2, 8, 18 | A delightful tale of the toys that get thrown away as time and technology march on. With a great voice cast and some charming characters, it is worth 25 minutes of anyones time. | 7 |
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Hillbilly Elegy | 2020 | 7 | Glen Close is fantastic as the redneck matriarch in this story of a poor boy come good who is dragged back to the life he is escaping from by his dependant mother. Well made, but despite being based on a story, it just isn't that interesting. | 6 |
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Happy Feet Two | 2011 | 1, 2, 4 | With a only a minor global warming motif to give it substance, this sequel relies on cute penguin babies, a Scandinavian avian imposter and comedy Krill. But it is all a bit disjointed and scrappy. | 5 |
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A Christmoose Story (Midden in de Winternacht) | 2013 | 4, 9 | A lonely boy meets a magical talking moose in this Dutch film whose story is vaguely reminscent of E.T. It suffers from the dubbed American voices and some mean-spirited characters but the animatronic moose is quite good and there are a few funny scenes | 5 |
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The Knight Before Christmas | 2019 | 4, 9, 16 | Josh Whitehouse is good value as a 14th century knight transported to modern times to fulfil a quest by Christmas Eve. Utterly predictable but above-average acting and some amusing 'fish out of water' scenes make it a perfectly watchable festive film. | 6 |
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The Christmas Chronicles 2 | 2020 | 1, 9 | Again influenced by past Christmas movies but plundering almost every major family comedy and fantasy movie of the last 40 years for ideas too, the plot is a bit of a mess and there's some below-par CGI, but it is still a fairly enjoyable Christmas movie. | 6 |
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How the Grinch Stole Christmas! | 1966 | 2, 4, 9 | 50 years on and the animation style has understandably dated, but it is a tremendously faithful representation of the book with some fun songs added for good measure. | 6 |
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Joyeux Noel | 2005 | 7, 21 | The story of the WWI Christmas ceasefire by French, German and British troops in the trenches shows the compassion from all sides, but seems too preoccupied with the art of the film at the expense of narrative. | 7 |
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Black Christmas | 1974 | 11, 20 | Despite some awful acting (from Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder in particular) and the film having aged quite badly, the original Christmas slasher is still an enjoyable thriller and its influence endures. | 6 |
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Angela's Christmas | 2017 | 2, 8, 18 | A delightful and charming short animation about a 1910s Irish girl who steals the baby Jesus from a display because the church isn't heated and the baby looks cold. | 7 |
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Nativity Rocks! | 2018 | 4, 8, 12 | Another re-tread of a well worn story. Not only is the Nativity a franchise of diminishing returns, the lead actors also reduce in stature with each entry. | 3 |
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This Christmas | 2007 | 4, 7 | The Whitfield family gather for Christmas and each bring plenty of drama with them. Sarring Idris Elba as the black sheep and Chris Brown as the singer, it is hardly original or unexpected. But it is fun and has a great cast dance-off at the end. | 6 |
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Christmas with the Kranks | 2004 | 4, 8 | Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis decide to skip Christmas in a film whose message appears to be that it is OK to bully and ostracise someone for not taking part, because Christmas. | 4 |
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Jack Frost | 1998 | 4, 5, 8 | Man dies, becomes snowman. The first half is a family relationship drama, the second is a slapstick comedy. Half too dull for kids and half too silly for adults. So who is it for? | 4 |
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The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special | 2020 | 2, 4 | As with all Lego productions there are plenty of amusing moments and it's not afraid to poke fun at the franchise, but story-wise this is fairly disappointing and relies too much on rehashing famous scenes from the Skywalker saga. | 6 |
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The Incredible Journey | 1963 | 1, 8 | A delightful and dramatic tale that showcases some brilliantly-trained animal actors, but you can't help wondering about their welfare given some of the dangerous scenes they are put into and the lack of visual effects support in that era. | 7 |
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Brightburn | 2019 | 9, 11, 20 | This dark twist on the Superman story has a great premise and probably deserved a better film than it got, but as a horror film it works fairly well with some gruesome deaths and an effective, creepy performance from Jackson Dunn. | 6 |
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Weekend at Bernie's | 1989 | 4 | Another 80s comedy that has aged badly, with a plot that is both ridiculous and tasteless, poor acting and jokes that mostly fall flat. | 4 |
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The Quake | 2018 | 7, 20 | This follow-up to 2015's The Wave builds up tension well before showing off impressive special effects for a modestly-budgeted film, but the rushed ending gives the feeling that the producers ran out of money before they could complete their vision. | 6 |