The Crow (1994) These are the dark days of a fantastical and oppressively claustrophobic Detroit. Every year sees hundreds of arson attacks on Devil's Night, the secret purpose of which is to serve the real estate plans of crimelord Top Dollar. One of his minor annoyances are goth lovebirds Shelly and Eric who were advocating for tenant's rights in their goth apartment building. So Top Dollar's henchmen visit them on that day. Eric is shot and defenestrated while Shelly is brutally raped and beaten and dies hours later in the hospital. A year later, a crow alights on Shelly and Eric's headstones. In this universe crows have a connection to both the living world and the world of the dead, and this one decides that Eric needs to come back to right the wrongs done to the couple. The now invincible Eric starts at the bottom of the crime organization and slowly figures out where the rest of his killers are. But Top Dollar has his own advisor of the occult, his disturbingly close sister who knows Eric's weakness. This was just so stylish and atmospheric. The (very nicely done in miniature) city was so tightly packed and oppressive you get how this comic book world created these comic book people that populate this place. All the sets, internal and external, were done with the same care, with things built on things and trash piled on trash and stuff on top of stuff you emotionally get this ages long history of slow decay and uncaring. The soundtrack is its own icon, very fitting with the theme and the time. You might think touching on real 1990's events and featuring so much 1990's culture that this is the ultimate 1990's time capsule, but there is are reason this is an everlasting cult classic. The movie gets that the heart of goth culture isn't blackness and gloom but romanticism, and The Crow has some truly touching moments based on the love Shelly and Eric had for each other and their unofficial ward Sarah. Even greater is the constant heartache that comes from knowing the invincibility is ephemeral, and that no matter what Eric will soon be back in the grave. It's been hours since I watched The Crow and I still feel it.
Fight Club (Fashclub). 1999 - David Fincher Went back to this film for a rewatch after 25 years with the next generation. This one hits personally for me as I was part of the oh so Gen X struggle against "the brand". While it's been said for a long time that this is really a film about fascism, i think it's also just blindingly obvious now that the whole idea of the film has been proven incorrect. All the stuff about the lost generation of man without their own war has more expliciitly emerged as far right nationalism and toxic masculinity now It's not worth commenting on much of the screenplay for this reason IMO, but i do still love the look of this period of film making. Especially how green and dingy everything is, but with the splash of lights on the faces. Also to note, the brutality of the fights was a big turnoff watching this again. Not needed IMO.
Hunt Her, Kill Her (2022) Dir. Greg Swinson & Ryan Thiessen Karen is a single mom who has taken on a new job as a night-shift janitor in a local furniture factory. Having just come out of a problematic relationship, she is still dealing with some trauma and the sudden responsibility of being her daughter's only guardian. During her first night working in the empty factory, she has to get used to the feeling of isolation, on her own in the large building. At first she suspects the strange noises she hears are just her imagination, then she becomes more convinced other people are actually in the closed off factory with her, until she is confronted by five masked individuals who appear to be there with the sole intention to murder her. Only Karen turns out to be much hardier than any of them had anticipated. There were aspects of this low-budget horror effort I liked, and some other choices that I did not understand and took me out of the experience. One thing I would put in the latter category was the voice modulation for the baddies voices. It is a choice that has an in-text explanation, but every time one of them spoke it kind of took me out of the experience. What it does very well is its use of the movie's only location: the empty furniture factory. Horror has long mined from the innate creepiness of large spaces that are usually filled with people and how they take on a whole other atmosphere when devoid of activity and life. The opening 25 minutes are not just used to up the tension by ramping up the sense of danger and isolation, the filmmakers also do a good job in using that section of the film to give us a good feel of the place, something that is important once the action truly starts. Natalie Terrazino is a decent lead, though she cannot entirely sell some of the one on one confrontations she has with her assailants.
Well, having a film called "Fight Club," without brutal fight scenes might be a bit of a letdown. I agree with the comments here and in the other thread, but it is still one of my favorite films of the past 25 years. I do wonder if I watched it today if I would change my mind (although I doubt it). The novel was pretty good, if you like Paluhniuk's style of writing, which I do and I don't simultaneously. It was his first novel, so it's even "rawer" than some of the following novels. I do agree that toxic masculinity and the "incel" world may be influenced by his novels. I have not read any of his last 8 or so, so I don't know if he has changed his style.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - 2024 There's a reason why this is getting good reviews everywhere, with only the "top critics" on Rotten Tomatoes seeming to not like it much, but those pretentious "professional" critics couldn't matter less in the real world. Lots of fun. It takes a while to set all the pieces in place, but the last 30-40 minutes is a lot of fun with a really snappy pace. They tie off almost everything very neatly, with the Soul Train gag entertaining me both times. I genuinely like the world building that was done in the early parts of this film and feel like they've opened up a whole world that could be explored in a limited series on whichever streamer would have the rights to it. The Danny Devito appearance was a great surprise. Jenna Ortega continues to be impossibly good in whatever role she plays. The Winona Ryder resurgence continued with another strong performance. Arthur Conti did a lot with his role, especially considering his only other credit is as a Queen's Page in one episode of House of the Dragon. Willem Dafoe was his spectacularly weird self. All in all, we got what felt like significantly more screen time for Beetlejuice than in the original but it didn't feel like too much, and I'd really like to see this world expanded on a bit more as long as it doesn't take Burton another 25+ years to get it green lit.
The Curse of the Necklace (2024) Dir. Juan Pablo Arias Munoz Back in the 1960s, we meet the Davis family. Mother Laura and father Frank are going through a trial separation following Frank's objections to Laura's new nursing job having led to a violent argument after which Laura no longer wants her cop husband in the house. Their two daughters Ellen and Judith are caught in the middle, with the girls having their own drama as Judith is going through puberty and this means she is ever more estranged from her young sister. An attempt by Frank to mend his relationship includes a gift with a rather unusual providence: an antique pendant with a dark history that Laura rejects, but Ellen becomes fascinated with, leading to unintended consequences of the supernatural kind. Far from a masterpiece but better than the generic title would suggest. The set-up which includes a single mom with two daughters in a 1960s setting kind of reminded me a bit of Mike Flanagan's (much better) Ouija 2: Origin of Evil. In Henry Thomas, the two movies even share an actor. The two daughter characters are played by real-life siblings Madeleine and Violet McGraw.
Civil War - 2024 If you had to guess how A24 would do a movie like this, you'd probably be pretty close. There's little explanation for why there are forces that have seceded and are now trying to take over Washington DC. There's only the vaguest mentioning of who is one what side, mostly as they get encountered. There's the occasional oasis in the middle of it all. Mostly they just put you in the world and let you fend for yourself while everything is blowing up all around the main cast. Cailee Spaeny is really setting herself up as a young star that plays memorable roles and does very interesting films and TV. Good flick but maybe a bit too long. Oh, and Jesse Plemons is too good at the creepy, dead inside character. I'm not sure he's acting.
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) Dir. Shawn Levy After an unsuccessful attempt to join the Avengers, Deadpool/Wade Wilson loses his motivation and leaves something of an aimless existence, working a job as the worst car salesman in history and having lost his girlfriend Vanessa. On his birthday, he is visited by representatives from the TVA who take him to see a Mr. Paradox. Paradox informs Wade that his universe is on borrowed time. Due to the death of the Wolverine in their universe, the time line will unravel and cease to exist in a few thousand years. Paradox wants to expedite the process using a special machine. Instead of allowing Paradox to recruit him, Deadpool goes rogue and decides to go find a new Wolverine, to replace the one his universe lost during the events of the movie Logan. Unfortunately he ends up settling for the one the TVA considers the worst Wolverine across the entire multiverse... Well this certainly was a Deadpool & Wolverine movie. I can't really fault either of the two leads, especially Hugh Jackman actually seems like he is having fun in this. But we have reached the stage where these movies are barely even feature films in the classical sense. Between the winking at the camera, the ironic remarks, the multiverse madness used to bring back old characters from prior franchises... This is a movie drowning in self-reference, crushed by the weight of its own (multiple) mythologies. It's hard to think how any broad appeal movie is supposed to carry this much unnecessary weight and still make sense as a standalone story. And no, having Wade Wilson break the fourth wall and call Marvel's obsession with the multiverse disastrous does not excuse riding that horse yet again for this one. What made the first Deadpool work for me was that in spite of all the silliness, it was anchored by an actual real emotional core, Wade's relationship to Vanessa. It is probably not a coincidence that both of the sequels, which I did not like nearly as much as the first one, had much less screen time for Morena Baccarin. Unfortunately this one won't act as a sign to change course for Marvel, since it made 1.3 billion dollars at the box office, at a time when crossing the 1 billion mark with their Marvel properties had started to seem elusive to the Mouse company. One minor positive point: whilst her motivations are never truly made clear beyond her being a superpowerful mutant ruling the Void like its evil queen, Emma Corrin's Cassandra Nova is actually one of the better villains they have had. Also, with every ********ing character getting its own movie or TV show, we better see a Dafne Keen X-23 project at some point. I am perpetually puzzled at the MCU's creative choices in terms of what they leave on the table and what they choose to focus on. A "The Wolverine" type property for Laura is a no-brainer.
Salem's Lot (2024) Dir. Gary Dauberman Author Ben Mears returns to his former home town of Salem's Lot around 25 years after tragedy made him leave it. He is there to do research for his next novel, but soon becomes intrigued by some strange events, which start shortly after the old Marsten house is bought by an Austrian immigrant and subsequently a young boy disappears without a trace. With more people disappearing and others dying in strange circumstances, a small group around Ben, which includes his new girlfriend Susie, a local teacher called Matt, Dr. Cody and the alcoholic priest Father Callahan start to suspect all of the events might be linked and have a supernatural explanation. It's fair to say that my expectations for this King adaptation - his second published novel famously originally adapted into a two-part mini-series by Tobe Hooper - were not met. It appears that the studio forced a much shorter two hour edit onto the director, whose original cut was closer to three hours long. It might explain how it feels like entire sections of this film are missing. But that alone doesn't explain an adaptation that feels broadly unambitious, with little memorable beyond a few visually delightful sequences and a solitary good performance by Bill Camp. Outside of him it is hard to think of another actor in this who leaves a lasting impression. Lead Lewis Pullman is perhaps the most underwhelming of all.
Young Woman and the Sea [2024] Based on the true story of Gertrude (Trudy) Ederle, who was the first woman to swim across the English Channel. At that time, she broke the man's record by almost two hours. Obviously, a feel good "athlete/sports" movie. Thanks to Hollywood, I now know her story.
The Bikeriders [2023] A decent flick about a motorcycle club called "Vandals." Tom Hardy is good as usual and the supporting cast did a great job as well. Was surprised to see how small of a role Michael Shannon played.
Spin the Bottle (2024) Dir. Gavin Wiesen Whilst his mother is spending time in a psychiatric hospital, High School senior Cole Randell transfers to a new school, so he can live in the sole property his mother and him now own: the house that once belonged to his grandfather. Infamous in its local community for having been the scene of multiple gruesome murders, it has been abandoned for years and Cole himself feels an eerie atmosphere in the old farmhouse. He finds more acceptance at the local high school, where a successful try-out for the football team means he gets quasi-accepted into a new social circle consisting of some of his fellow football players and cheerleaders. The kids invite themselves to his place, partially out of curiosity to see the infamous murder house. To entertain themselves, they decide to play an adolescent game they probably should be too old for, in the basement where the murders took place: spin the bottle. With unexpected and dire consequences... There have been more than a few recent and semi-recent horror movies centered around some sort of game. There is the Ouija franchise. Recently there was Tarot. There was even one actually based on Truth or Dare. And the success ratio of the sub genre has been more miss than hit. Ouija was not great. Ouija: Origin of Evil was terrific. Tarot featured a good table setting that did not pay off in the rest of the film. Truth or Dare was so forgettable I barely remember anything about it. This falls more in the miss category for me as well. Shoehorning in the game into the "and then there were none" style dispatching of the kids felt forced. Other than perhaps Angela Halili, the young cast members do not leave much of an impression and the older more recognizable actors like Justin Long, Ali Larter and Tony Amendola aren't in it enough to elevate the material.
The Killer's Game (2024) Dir. J.J. Perry Joe Flood is a hitman based out of Budapest who has been contemplating retirement, mostly due to health concerns, as he is getting consistent headaches that cause dizzy spells that have led to hairy situations during assassination missions. On one such mission he makes a chance encounter with dancer Maize and when he returns her lost phone a few days later, they end up going on a dinner date. A whirlwind romance follows in which Flood's motivation for retiring change from health concerns to wanting a real life with Maize. Just as he informs his handler that he wants to arrange for a clean exit out of the hitman game, his doctor has bad news: Joe has a non-treatable condition that will kill him in a few months. With a desire to leave something behind for Maize, he makes the extreme decision to put out a hit on his own life, using a rival assassination agency, in the hope that Maize can benefit from his life insurance policy. The pay-out for the hit is large enough that a large and eclectic group of killers from all over the world descend upon Budapest. An action vehicle led by Dave Bautista, with a now very familiar trope - assassin on assassin action - and an interesting collection of actors in the cast. Unfortunately this is never elevated above simple genre cliches and is only kept watchable by Bautista. Kind of disappointed to see him in this, movies like Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and Knock at the Cabin prove he has a far greater range and this isn't the kind of material where he gets to flex those muscles. Of the colorful assassin characters, I most liked the foul-mouthed Scottish brothers played by Scott Adkins and Drew McIntyre. Also features one of Bautista's fellow Guardians of the Galaxy in Pom Klementieff.
Inside Out 2 ~ K. Mann I think I've completely soured on Pixar. It may be that I went in already predisposed to negativity, but I hated this film. It feels completely unnecessary. It's plot is shallow and lazy. Watching the physical manifestation of anxiety control the main characters every action was... anxiety-inducing. Knowing Disney/Pixar hosed the animators, firing them before release as to avoid paying bonuses, and actively edited any scene that might read as Riley being gay just adds to my dislike. https://www.avclub.com/pixar-inside-out-2-workplace-chaos-layoffs
Treasure [2024] My second movie on the plane. On the eve of Yom Kippur, I randomly stumbled upon this movie. Never heard of it. I understand what this movie is supposed to convey and I wanted to "enjoy" it more than I did, but it fell short. Even though the subject is pretty damn serious, it's nowhere near as good as (what I thought it was trying to replicate) Everything Is Illuminated. Frye is a decent lead (though miscast), but Lena Dunham is also completely miscast. It's too bad.
The layoffs were because Pixar finished the production of their two Disney+ series and went back to just doing films. It had absolutely nothing to do with bonuses for Inside Out 2 and the original report doesn't even hint at the fired employees having worked on the film. The layoffs were ordered by Bob Iger, so it's not even Pixar that initiated it. They actually laid off 6% fewer employees than earlier reports had projected. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/b...offs-hit-storied-animation-studio-1235904847/ It sucks for those who were laid off, but since all the complaints are anonymous there's not even anything to pull from to say how much any of the people that were laid off actually worked on the film. As far as the gay Riley stuff, they literally released a short with her on a date with a boy after the first film and have never even hinted that she's gay or curious at all. That's a bunch of social media nonsense where people with no lives projected something onto a character and then got mad that they were wrong. So, no we don't know that Pixar did either thin you're claiming, and in fact we do know that the cuts were expected as far back as January and that there's nothing other than people making stuff up online to suggest that they changed scenes with Riley that might have hinted that she's gay. I don't know who Mary Kate Carr is, as I haven't read any of her other reporting that I'm aware of, but the article you linked is mostly heresay and outright anti-factual at times.
Mr. Crocket - 2024 A children's TV show host gets killed in a kidnapping gone awry in 1979. In 1993, several kids go missing as he reaches out from their TV/VCR to "save them" from bad parenting. We eventually get to the point of multiple parents coming together to try and bring them back. There's animatronics, animation, lots of creative set pieces, and the third act looks like it was set in Pee Wee's Crackhouse. Campy, absurd fun that is smart enough to know it's just there to be ridiculous and have a simple plot. Is it great? NO Is it good? MAYBE Is it a fun way to spend about 90 minutes with your brain mostly turned off? YES
The article I tagged (which is mostly aggregating quotes) links to the full story at IGN here. Yes, they're anonymous sources. I'm sure publicly complaining about Disney is not a good career choice. You're right that they weren't fired to avoid paying bonuses, and I should have phrased that differently. Being told in January that you'll be laid off after crunching to complete this film and not being able to collect associated bonuses for that film (which the IGN article explains is an important part of Pixar's pay structure) still seems shitty to me. The complaint isn't that they didn't make Riley gay, it's that what's described is "just doing a lot of extra work to make sure that no one would potentially see them as not straight." Anyway, it's a lousy film.
Alien: Romulus (2024) Dir. Fede Álvarez Rain Carradine, a young woman who lives and works on the Weyland-Yutani colony of Jackson's Star on LV-410, a ringed planet where no sunlight can penetrate the atmosphere. Most of the colonists work in the mines, where a combination of disease and accident makes a long life unlikely. Just as Rain has reached the point where she has amassed enough credits to get off the planet, her stay is extended by many years as Weyland-Yutani unilaterally ups the amount of credits required for a ride off the planet. She is not the only one eager to get off LV-410, and when he ex-boyfriend Tyler contacts her with a plan to use cryo-pods from a derelict space ship in orbit to get to another colony some nine years travel away, she is desperate enough to agree. Accompanying them on this off the books little snatch and grab mission are Tyler's sister Kay, Tyler's cousin Bjorn and Bjorn's sister Navarro. The last member of their illicit operation is Andy, Rain's 'brother', in reality a decommissioned Weyland-Yutani android that Rain's late father reprogrammed and who is fully devoted to his sister Rain. When they arrive on the station, signs of violence suggest that things might not be quite as easy as they had thought. This was pretty much hyped a lot during its theatrical run. I found it a bit of a mixed bag. Definitely not the best Alien movie since Aliens. I would still easily rank this behind Fincher's 'anti-Aliens' Alien 3. I do think I like it better than either Prometheus or Alien Covenant, but this is perhaps more about how little I ultimately rated those projects, in spite of Michael Fassbender's good work in them. I would say this film's biggest asset is that director Fede Álverez does have a good appreciation of what made the original film work, even though his own effort does not come close to that quality. I would still argue that the first hour is well done. Unfortunately the second hour does not really pay off the promise of the set-up done in that first half of the film. The cast does indeed look more like the ensemble you'd assemble for a new Riverdale style CW show than an Alien film. No Harry Dean Stantons or Yaphet Kotto's in sight, instead just a bunch of very good-looking young people. Not that I thought their performances were bad, especially lead Cailee Spaeny and her main scene partner David Jonsson are both quite good. There is some stuff I did not like. The many dialogue callbacks to prior Alien films took me out of the experience. Once or twice is fine, they definitely overdid it here. Especially since this film worked best in those few moments it truly tried to do its own thing. The thing I loathed the most however: Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler The uncanny valley nightmare of the Ian Holm's appearance, as android Rook. I abhor this practice (the use of a dead actor's likeness in films) in principle, but this is one example where the execution is just plain bad on top of everything else; not one of his scenes looks real or natural. It's especially perplexing when you consider they had several living android actors from the Alien franchise they could have chosen instead. e.g. Lance Henriksen, if they wanted to argue that Michael Fassbender wasn't likely to return for a project originally shot for Hulu. One other thing I thought of a lot during this film was Alien: Isolation, an excellent entry in the Alien 'franchise' within a different medium: video games. Both in some of the set design but also the atmosphere. I believe that Fede Álvarez has admitted the game was something of an influence, so this is probably no coincidence.
Happened to catch a bit of Alien whilst channelsurfing yesterday, hard not to stop for a bit whenever you land on a classic film like that. Watched around a twenty minute bit, up to the chestburster scene with Kane/John Hurt. And it infuriated me even more in regards to the thing I hated the most about Alien: Romulus. Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler Ian Holm's original performance in Alien is so good. So measured, subtle, reasoned... Just look at what he does with just his eyes in most scenes. To replace him with a horror show version in which his face is digitally superimposed upon someone else's performance is frankly insulting.
Twas the Date Before Christmas - 2024 I decided to subject myself to the Hallmark Christmas movies this year, and maybe a few GAF and Lifetime films. Not sure why, I just did. This one isn't horrible after the first 15 minutes or so. It feels like the distant cousin of You've Got Mail/The Shop Around the Corner, but with that distinct flair of Hallmark's 3 week filming schedule. In this one Jessie uses a dating app to find a blind date for her family's annual "Christmas Olympics." Bryan decides to try it because he was an only child and had never experienced a big family Christmas. They hit it off but over the course of the day Bryan realizes that Jessie's sister runs a candle store (come on Hallmark, really?) that is the only holdout to not leave the building his property development company is going to turn into low income housing. Between the snowball fight, Wrap Battle, and other weird contests a few secrets come out before Bryan finally decides to change the development plan and allow for storefronts on the 1st floor of the building. Overall painless with enough reasonably good scenes to almost get my hopes up about this nonsensical endeavor. The female lead is played by Amy Groening who is apparently related to Simpsons creator Matt Groening. She's above average as the lead. The actress who plays her sister (can't find her name anywhere) is probably the most legitimately talented person in the film. Robert Buckley plays Bryan and he's essentially just generic white dude #12 who would fit right in on The Bold Days of our Generally Hospitable Beautiful Lives or whatever the soap opera of the moment is.
Very belated Longlegs thought: I mentioned in the review that central framing is a common visual motif throughout the film. Then I suddenly recalled that Osgood Perkins' father most famous movie had Hitchcock use central framing a lot as well: Psycho. Possibly a pure coincidence of course.
The Shadow Strays (2024) Dir. Timo Tjahjanto We open in Japan, a house heavily guarded by armed mobsters is apparently awaiting the arrival of an assassin or assassins that have been hired to kill the leader of their clan. The raised concern on behalf of the spooked gangsters is due to the identity of the supposed killers: members of an organization known as The Shadows, killers renowned for their deadliness and unstoppable nature. The hit in Japan is carried out in spectacular fashion by Umbra and her young protege, who is known simply as 13. Umbra had to step in to save 13 mid-mission, meaning that the young assassins is sent back home to Jakarta to await debriefing whilst Umbra and her own superior travel onward to carry out another hit. Back in Jakarta, the very bored 13 becomes aware of a young mother-son pair living on her floor, where the mother is clearly crippled by substance abuse and the son is left with the care of his mom. One day, 13 observes men arriving at her neighbors apartment, clearly manhandling mother and son. After not intervening to maintain her anonymous and invisible nature, it is revealed that the boy's mother died, officially due to an overdose, but 13 knows that she actually died at the hands of the men she had observed the night prior. In the next few days, she befriends the surviving son, Monji, who is left to fend for himself. When Monji himself disappears a few days later, 13 suspects that the boy attempted to get revenge for his mother's death, from the crime boss he deemed responsible for it: Haga. Enough reason for 13 to seek out Haga herself, in spite of the fact that going off on solo off the books operations like that is very much against all of the Shadows' rules and if her superiors get wind of it, she will almost certainly pay a high price for it... Another electrifying action thriller by action director Timo Tjahjanto, most well known for his The Night Comes for Us. Shares similar themes, including a cold-hearted killer going against his/her own organization in the hope to save a young boy. Very enjoyable but ultimately a little less so than The Night Comes for Us. I think that effort was more focused. Whereas I don't think the 140+ minute runtime is completely earned here. Not that it ever feels like it is dragging, but the middle section does slow down noticeable. There is probably a superior two hour edit of this film to be made. Aurora Ribero is a gem of a new discovery as an action lead. Like most of Tjahjanto films, this kind of leans into the occasional gruesomeness of the action, with plenty of fake blood, chopped off limbs, crushed heads and knife through head/neck/mouth action. The final scene - featuring a familiar face if you are a fan of Indonesian action - sets up a probable sequel. I'm still more interested in seeing an Operator prequel/sequel from Timo. For folks interested in the American/Hollywood perspective: Timo Tjahjanto is going to direct the Nobody sequel, starring Bob Odenkirk.
Holiday Crashers - 2024 Two poor, bored best friends (who live in a huge apartment) decide steal invitations from their job and use them to crash Christmas parties. Obviously things start to catch up with them. They start getting recognized, both from previous parties and real life acquaintances, with their stories getting them invited to a corporate weekend getaway where obviously some of the truth comes out. Bri (Monet) inexplicably gets mad when the guy she's pursuing turns out to own the valet parking company instead of just being an employee, but eventually marries him which leads to the Hallmark version of a Bollywood wedding. Toni (Fonseca) eventually gets outed as someone who didn't pass the bar and isn't allowed to practice law or give legal advice for pay. In the end, of course it all works out. Lyndsy Fonseca and Daniella Monet are clearly the two people with real acting credits in this production, and Monet gives the best performance. Jag Bal as Vinny, the owner of the valet parking company, is reasonably good as well. Chris McNally as Justin, the owner of the investment company and love interest for Fonseca is atrocious. Not as good as the first movie of the season, but still not the typical terrible Hallmark movie. Maybe all the people that jumped ship for Great American Family were the ones holding them down?