This is it: The Top Ten First Watches of 2024!

Thanks all for listening to the podcast!

Moving forward, reviews will be exclusively on YouTube but I will be working on what I will do on the feed, possibly a weekly podcast rounding up what I reviewed and other things I'd like to talk about.

Thank you again for listening and I hope you have a great 2025!

Wiz RECOMMENDS Holiday Inn...But It's Not A Christmas Movie

I came into Holiday Inn under the pretense of "I watched White Christmas last year and liked it...and this is a remake of Holiday Inn...so I'll watch Holiday Inn to compare the two!"

Well...there's a few problems with this mode of thinking.

FIrst: White Christmas is a loose remake of Holiday Inn...and loose is the key word here.

The only things that both films have in common are Bing Crosby and it's set in a country inn. That's it.

In fact, even though it's considered a holiday classic...Holiday Inn is not a Christmas movie. Hell, scenes during Christmas is only in the beginning and end of the film.

This essentially means that comparing the two films to each other is kind of pointless. So, yeah, making this the final review of the year before Christmas feels like a mistake. Whoops.

Anyway, Holiday Inn is a cute film that has some great aspects to it.

Firstly, the dancing with Fred Astaire is really good.

Yeah...I know, Fred Astaire, good dancer...who knew right?

But seeing him and Marjorie Reynolds go at it in some of the dancing scenes (especially the drunken party scene) are really fun and astounding to watch.

Another good aspect of the film is Bing Crosby's singing. Yes...I know, Bing Crosby is a good singer...stop the presses.

Though not all of the singing numbers are good (the Lincoln's Birthday one is not great...even when considering it as a "sign of the times"), some of them are enjoyable, especially "White Christmas" and the beginning number.

So the primary things are pretty damn solid for a musical to work: great dancing, good music.

But the film isn't a cavalcade of singing and dance numbers, there's actually a story there.

And honestly, the story is okay at best.

The competitiveness of the two main male leads is kind of weird considering one really hates the other (for good reason), so when he returns to go after his love interest for the film, it still seems kind of odd he will let him be there.

But on top of that, neither character is all that likable. Both are manipulative and conniving which makes it pretty hard to sympathize with Crosby's character when he's doing all this stuff to jeopardize Reynolds' character's career.

But taking those aspects away from the romance, the chemistry between Reynolds and Crosby is kind of average at best.

This has more to do with Crosby than Reynolds but it's clear the actors were hired for their dancing and musical talents then their acting abilities.

This doesn't lead to an unenjoyable film; it just leads to an average one when the music and dancing isn't on screen.

And I guess that is what makes this film disappointingly enjoyable when compared to the great time I had last year with White Christmas: it's a fun movie that I wouldn't object to watching again...but it's an enjoyable time waster at best.

Zero and Wiz RECOMMEND Three Days of the Condor

Sometimes you watch a movie and you just enjoy it even though there are glaring issues with the finished product.

This was my exact feeling finishing Three Days of the Condor, Sydney Pollack's paranoia thriller about a CIA reader (Robert Redford) who comes back from lunch finding his entire team assassinated.

The movie is actually entertaining: it's a twisty thriller that makes you wonder whether the main character will make it out alive.

The plot goes along at a decent clip hitting beats of the plot and providing new information as the film moves forward.

The mystery aspects, along with the governmental spook plotline, makes it enjoyable...though I can't really say I was excited or enthralled by what I was watching.

As for performances, Max von Sydow's quiet and clever performance as a freelance assassin. He plays him as elusive, somewhat creepy and seasoned and Sydow is easily the most interesting of the characters in the film.

But there was one element of the film that made me almost not recommend it and that's everything to do with the character played by Faye Dunaway.

Essentially, Dunaway plays a character that is kidnapped by the main character, tied up and gagged at some point...then becomes romantically interested in him soon after.

It's actually rather appalling to watch one minute where she is scared and was tied up in the bathroom with him barking orders....only to then minutes later be in a sex scene that is portrayed as loving and romantic with a soft camera look.

And then...for some god awful reason....she decides to help him!

Maybe this is me injecting "modern values" in a film but it seems incredibly strange that someone who was terrified for her life one day...is falling for her captor the next day.

And before you ask, the film isn't that deep to be portraying her as someone going through Stockholm Syndrome.

Here's the thing though: if you are able to just turn your brain off and just enjoy the spy plotline, Three Days of the Condor is a decently entertaining film.

It's just odd to watch a film that deals with its espionage elements somewhat intelligently only to completely blunder with a key character.