Since Christmas is coming up I like to get in the Christmas spirit by watching Christmas themed films. (I used the word Christmas 3 times in one sentance), so in the upcoming weeks I'll probably watch many of the following (if not all of them): Gremlins, White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, Die Hard, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Scrooged, Bad Santa, The Muppets Christmas Carol, Santa Claus The Movie, A Christmas Story and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I watched the first of many Christmassy movies today... Elf (2003)

Now I'm a big fan of Will Ferrell (forgetting he made poo like Kicking and Screaming and Bewitched) and he is great here as the man child Buddy. Originally Buddy is a baby in an orphange that is visited by Santa Clause (Edward Asner) who sneaks into Santa's sack and is brought back to the North Pole, he is adopted by Bob Newhart and raised as an elf despite towering them by many feet, one day he find's out he is not actually an elf and sets off for New York city to find his real dad (James Caan).

That's where a bit of culture clash comedy comes in, New Yorkers (as least how they are portrayed in films and television) keep themselves to themselves, Buddy is over excited, his first visit to his dad doesn't go to well and ends up by mistake getting brought into a Gimble's Christmas display and he excited when he hears the news Santa is coming, in this time he notices a girl (played by the lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely Zooey Deschanel). One as to assume/hope Buddy is a virgin at this point, cause the thought of him bumping uglies with a elf is pretty scary. Anyway, after hearing Zooey Deschanel singing in the shower and duetting with her (and scaring her), the Santa comes and Buddy uncovers him as not the real Santa and the two fight with Buddy ending up in prison, he uses the phone call to ring his dad, who comes up and takes Buddy for a DNA test, it is proved they are father and son. He comes to stay with the family, dad hoping he gets over the elf fixation and it's revealed he's pretty distant to his family

The film is certainly a family comedy (even though bits of are a bit rude, Will Ferrell is great in the lead and Zooey Deschanel shines (yes I was making an excuse to post a picture of her), I laughed out loud a few times and I'm sure it's going to be seen for many Christmas Days to come by everybody. The film will give you your Christmas spirit, whether you like it or not.

Bask in the loveliness of...

Zooey Deschanel

The Good Girl

Okay pop quiz hot shot, Friends was one of the most successful shows on television for ten years but there big screen experiences leave little to be desired- okay Courteney Cox in Scream, Lisa Kudrow in The Opposite of Sex, both deserve mentions as good movies. But on the other hand you've got Matt Le Blanc's Ed and Lost in Space, Cox's The Shrink is In, Matthew Perry's Whole Nine Yards and it's sequel, David Schwimmer's The Pallbearer- it's just a lot easier to list the turkeys, the big fat stinking turkeys. The Good Girl certainly instantly joins the list of good movies.

Jennifer Aniston is so un-Rachel, this is one of those small indepenent movies and she actually shows she can act, but it helps she is surroned by an awesome cast, Jake Gyllenhaal- Those Gyllenhaal kids are some talented bastards- you feel sorry for the kid cause he appears unbalanced, John C. Reilly is as always excellent, as the naive husband and Tim Blake Nelson as his best friend, Zooey Deschanel is lovely and brilliant as a co-worker at Aniston's store with almost zero customer care skills and Mike White (he wrote this, and also wrote episodes of Freaks and Geeks, School of Rock, Chuck and Buck and Orange County) and is talented as both an actor and a writer.

The film is fair to probably to describe as typical indie fare, but there is nothing wrong with it falling into that category- nothing pretty much happens, is a way to describe this movie, but everybody involved with this movie shows great talent, and Aniston will no longer just be known as Rachel. Funny and sad in equal measures it was a great little movie to watch with some wonderful little moments and performances. Recommended for those who don't need explosions and car chases.

****