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WARNER

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Michelle Johnston
Cast:
Laura Marano, Gregg Sulkin, Isabella Gomez
Writing Credits:
Michelle Johnston

Synopsis:
Kat Emerson could really use a Christmas miracle!

MPAA:
Rated PG.

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audio:
English DTS-HD MA 5.1
French Dolby 5.1
Latin Spanish Dolby 5.1
Subtitles:
English
Latin Spanish
French
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
Latin Spanish

Runtime: 86 min.
Price: $20.99
Release Date: 10/29/2019

Bonus:
• “The Looks & Costumes of Christmas Wish” Featurette
• “The Mic & The Stage” Featurette
• Previews
• DVD Copy


PURCHASE @ AMAZON.COM

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RELATED REVIEWS


A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish [Blu-Ray] (2019)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (October 20, 2019)

With 2019’s A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish, we get a Yuletide update on the classic fairy tale. Here we meet Kat Decker (Laura Marano), a young woman who dreams of fame as a singer-songwriter.

Alas, reality makes these goals difficult to achieve. Kat finds herself stuck in a gig as a singing elf at a “Santa Land” operated by wealthy business tycoon Terence Wintergarden (Barclay Hope).

One perk emerges, as Kat finds herself smitten with sexy Santa Nick Wintergarden (Gregg Sulkin), Terence’s son. She hopes to really connect with Nick at Terence’s upcoming gala.

However, Kat’s vindictive stepmother Deirdre (Johannah Newmarch) and pushy stepsisters Grace (Chanelle Peloso) and Joy (Lillian Doucet-Roche) seek to put the kibosh on our hero’s dreams. It’ll take some serious holiday magic to overcome the odds.

Let’s make it clear: Wish exists as light fare for tween girls, not middle-aged men like me. But let’s make this clear as well: neither the 1950 animated Disney flick or that studio’s 2015 live-action update aimed for middle-aged men either, and I liked those.

As such, I don’t think that my age and/or gender should ensure that I find no charm in Wish. Sure, it becomes less likely I’ll embrace the film due my distance from its target audience, but a well-made movie is a well-made movie, whatever its intended demographic.

Wish isn’t a well-made movie.

Oh, the movie enjoys occasional moments of mirth, mainly via the over the top comedic performances by Newmarch, Peloso and Doucet-Roche. Though we’ve seen these roles done a billion times, these actors bring a 21st century twist and contribute the film’s sporadic spots of entertainment value.

As our lead, Marano looks gorgeous, but she fails to bring much personality to the part, and the same goes for Sulkin as our Generic Hot Guy. It also seems odd and creepy that the film decides to make Kat underaged.

As far as I can tell, Wish gives us a jailbait Kat solely to keep her under the thumb of her stepmother. As explained here, Kat should inherit her dead dad’s fortune, but she doesn’t get the money until she turns 18, so she remains beholden to Deirdre until then.

This seems like a tenuous link at best. With only four months until she hits 18, I can’t imagine Kat couldn’t find a way to gain independence from all her stepmom’s degradations for such a short period of time.

And why isn’t Kat in high school? Granted, people do graduate early, but this nonetheless seems like a weird choice, especially because the story consistently treats Kat as an older person.

Nothing about Kat’s depiction allows her to feel 17. I get the feeling the original script made her a few years older but then someone threw in the expository note to explain why her stepmom still controls her.

Abundant other stretches of logic appear as well. Why does wealthy Nick need to act as a Santa? We’re told it’s a “family tradition”, but like Kat’s underage status, that reeks of cheap exposition.

This seems especially odd because the film treats “Santa Land” as a Big Deal. There’s no way a company’s major holiday attraction would bring in such an unconvincing Santa – they’d want Miracle on 34th Street-level staff!

Why do we get musical performances at Santa Land? Who thinks sexy elves make a lot of sense?

And on and on. Even by the low standards of bargain-basement tween entertainment, Wish suffers from a lazy script that barely bothers logic and natural development.

When Wish finds a way to keep the leads apart, it picks one of the dumbest twists ever committed to film, an “obstacle” so lame that my eyes might have permanently rolled. Everything here smacks of insane laziness.

Also, for a holiday effort, Wish comes with a surprising amount of racy dialogue. No, we don’t get substantial profanity, but these lines seem inappropriate for fare of this sort.

Would it have killed the producers to offer some vocals that sounded at least vaguely natural? We get a couple of tunes sung in fairly natural voices, but usually the movie uses enough Autotune to gag a cat, and this becomes a real distraction.

Admittedly, you can find worse holiday entertainment of this sort, but that remains a low bar. Wish feels like product intended to exploit a market and nothing more.


The Disc Grades: Picture B+/ Audio C/ Bonus C-

A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish appears in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a satisfactory presentation.

Overall sharpness seemed solid. A couple of wide shots looked a smidgen soft, but those were the exception to the rule, as the majority of the flick was accurate and detailed.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I noticed no edge haloes. Source flaws were absent, as the movie looked consistently clean.

Like most films of this sort, Wish gave us a mix of amber and teal. Within those parameters, the hues were positive.

Blacks seemed deep and dark, while shadows showed good smoothness and clarity. I felt happy with the transfer.

Though not special, the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 offered a passable affair. The soundscape favored music, as the score and songs brought out a good sense of stereo presence that also spread to the surrounds in a moderate manner.

Effects boasted less involvement, but they gave us decent material at times. This mainly impacted a few fantasy beats, so don’t expect a lot of activity.

Audio quality appeared satisfactory, though speech became a drawback, as the lines occasionally lacked great lip-synch. This didn’t become a major issue, but dialogue just didn’t match mouth movements as well as I’d expect.

Otherwise, speech sounded fine, as these elements felt fairly natural. Music seemed full and rich, with nice low-end as well.

Though effects didn’t have a lot to do, they showed accurate reproduction and clarity. The movie offered adequate audio.

Two featurettes appear, and The Looks and Costumes of Christmas Wish goes for five minutes, 33 seconds. It provides notes from costume designer Valerie Halverson and actors Gregg Sulkin, Laura Marano, Lillian Doucet-Rouche and Chanelle Peloso.

As expected, we learn about clothes and visual choices. It’s a fairly informative little reel.

The Mic and the Stage runs 11 minutes, four seconds and features Marano, Sulkin, writer/director Michelle Johnston, choreographers Louise Hradsky and Scott Hislop, and actor Isabella Gomez.

“Mic” examines the movie’s use of music and choreography. Though fluffy, it comes with some good information.

The disc opens with ads for Blinded By the Light and Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase. Trailers adds promos for The Sun Is Also A Star and Pokemon Detective Pikachu.

A second disc provides a DVD copy of Wish. It includes the same extras as the Blu-ray.

While I don’t expect much from direct-to-video holiday fare, A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish still comes up short. Cheap, clumsy and inane, the movie flops. The Blu-ray comes with very good picture, erratic audio and minor supplements. You can do better than this Grade Z adaptation.

Viewer Film Ratings: 1 Stars Number of Votes: 1
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