Spirited (AppleTV, 2022)

Watched this last night, and it was perfectly suited for a ‘heartwarming’ Christmas movie.  Not a huge fan of Will Ferrell, and Ryan Reynolds is mostly tolerable because he makes fun of himself.

You can’t stop watching yet another take on A Christmas Carol, though, can you?  Even one that is a musical with only one good singer who doesn’t get much to do (for the record, the actress playing the Ghost of Christmas Past).

I will say the production numbers are really well done, even if the movie could have been a very enjoyable 90 minutes instead of bloated past two hours.

I might watch this again if it were on, but I’m not going to seek it out.  The best part of it was watching it with family.

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (HBOMax, 2025)

While this had been on my radar as going to be released at the end of 2025, the tragic event of the murders of Rob and Michele Reiner made me watch this “mockumentary” followup in a very different light.

While I am a fan of the original movie, I do not know all of the songs and the key lines by heart.  The setup of the sequel is that the band needs to reunite for one more show.  Rob Reiner “Marty” is back as the director/interviewer.

Sadly, I think the movie suffers from having to follow in its own footsteps.  There are some good bits with some “special guests” and the best thing is that there is a definite story arc in the 90 minutes.

In hindsight, it was bittersweet to see Rob Reiner do a bit of slapstick.

I have to shout out the newcomer Valerie Franco as Tap’s latest drummer. This seems particularly relevant now that Rush has tapped a new drummer; I think once again Spinal Tap was ahead of the curve!

This movie won’t resonate like the first one did, but it is going to serve as the standing stone of Rob Reiner’s last film, and it does that honorably, and with some honest laughs along the way.

Wake Up Dead Man (Netflix, 2025)

We got to this one fairly quickly as we’ve enjoyed the two previous “Knives Out” stories.  As usual this one’s got a great cast (I didn’t even recognize Thomas Haden Church).

This one carves up a twisty plot as the others did.  Strange to see Mila Kunis in the main position of authority but I liked her performance.   Daniel Craig’s accent doesn’t seem over-the-top this time around.

It’s a bit long.  It doesn’t exactly -plod- but it does take its time.  My wife says she had most of it figured out, but I had only figured out a couple of points before the reveal.  She gave it bonus points for some Netflix meta-referencing, too.

Still, it was a good watch and use of our Netflix money this month.