This is someone with multiple outstanding performances in every genre of film from every decade since he started appearing in films in the ‘80s. I would strongly encourage someone to start making a documentary about this man with many hours of interviews because from nerd to karate master to bouncer at Limelight to bodyguard to B-list actor to beloved action star to activist fighting sex trafficking…that’s a lot of life he’s lived already.ĭrink him in, folks he always goes down smooth. before leaving to go bang Grace Jones in New York for a while. It’s also funny because, while everyone else is spewing technobabble that doesn’t make sense, I couldn’t stop thinking about how this world champion martial artist and Olympic athlete and action star also has his Masters in chemical engineering and was awarded a Fullbright scholarship to M.I.T. There’s a lot going on with his character and most of it is so broad it’s basically a Diego Rivera mural, but he still has more charm in his latter day performances than he was ever allowed to in the ‘80s and ‘90s. It’s grating and I’d like to think they deserve better.īut he’s the sycophantic entitled corporate ladder climber, combined with the jealous overlooked has-been, and the scheming criminal mastermind with his goons, while constantly needing to be the alpha dog in every situation. There’s cartoon sound effects when they fall or they don’t understand words and…it’s like if “Yakkety Sax” was made into the form of two dim-witted overactors. The duo are more comparable to the bumbling underlings in 3 NINJAS than the borderline sociopaths of Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern in HOME ALONE. The thieves (Nicholas Turturro and Stelio Savante) remain manic morons whose buffoonery is so over the top that it’s competing for a truck in Vegas. Then everything kind of mellows out and the same quality of jokes persist, but without the same level of flopsweat in trying to sell everything as so goddamn kooky and cutesy. It’s odd how the film is legitimately all sorts of wackadoo shenanigans for the human story right up until a very specific scene where a lesson is delivered by an incredible actor delivering the best performance of the film. Like “yeah, obviously these wacky inventors for the leading pet technology firm will all have to live together in a basic suburban development that’s how adults do!” Soon Robert meets Holly (Sara Lindsey), the obvious love interest and owner of Ginger, but he’s too busy being a big ole klutz and absent-minded inventor to act like a person. There’s that odd thing in family films where it’s not from a child’s perspective, but it uses child logic. There’s not many of these brief moments, but they are good vehicles for exposition delivery and made me (awkwardly) chuckle a couple of times. The animation itself resembles Brad Bird’s post- Family Dog/pre- IRON GIANT days with a dollop of Don Bluth thrown in for good measure. But Marlon Young’s narration is very smooth and pleasant, and the jokes about the camera not following where he’s directing them or simply giving up on how stupid the characters are is nice bit of audience representation. Robert gets so sucked into his work as an inventor that he neglects his daughter and then they suddenly have to move so Robert can work for Pet Tech, a company never mentioned until they arrive at the neighborhood that Pet Tech apparently owns and populates with its employees.Ī word about the occasional animated (computer renderings of drawings on paper that pop up like the Game Of Thrones opening credits) interludes before moving on: I laughed a couple of times at them. In an UP-like animated prologue in which Charlie is adopted by the family, the mom suddenly gets sick and dies, leaving behind her husband, Robert (Tyler Hollinger), and daughter, Jenna (Isadora Swann). Philip Weyhe of the Northfield News called it "largely enjoyable, rather funny and a good time." Weyhe criticized the film for being sappy and predictable, but praised Isadora Swann's and Marguerite Moreau's performances.To back up just a little, while the film is sold on the HOMEWARD BOUND ALONE mash-up (eh), the film is fairly split with the human story. A struggling writer (Mike Faiola), who has taken a job writing responses in Santa's name, receives the letter, and he finds new inspiration and the beginnings of a romance. The daughter (Isadora Swann) of a widow (Marguerite Moreau) writes to Santa Claus, asking for her mother to find love again. The film was set in and partially filmed in Northfield, Minnesota. It was written by Brian Herzlinger and Jay Black, directed by Brian Herzlinger, and produced by MarVista Entertainment. Love Always, Santa is a 2016 romantic comedy television film first broadcast by Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.
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