I have been a long time fan of Eddie Murphy and although I haven't always found him as funny as I hoped, his roles have always been charming enough to satiate my expectations.
I started this movie with bridled expectations. The camera work and lighting in this movie is really nice, the effects were also quite well done, and I enjoyed some of the music, though I did notice that some of the music sounded like generic loops from Garage Band were used.
Where this movie fell apart was the story and delivery. The story felt forced, where it needed more fleshing out and new characters seemed to drop from the sky and clash with the story instead of interweaving.
The characters were also annoying, with some just being outright vulgar and some screaming their lines as if screaming somehow validated their dialogue.
Eddie Murphy and his family seemed disconnected from each other, as if there had been a miscast of the actors. Their dialogue was shallow and the most disappointing thing was that it wasn't delivered with convincing tone and body language.
The movie had all the trappings of all of the common commercialized Christmas movies that are being released now days, case in point there were two prominent cans of brand-name paint on display in one of the first scenes of the movie.
This will not be a movie that I add to my yearly watch list by no means.
I started this movie with bridled expectations. The camera work and lighting in this movie is really nice, the effects were also quite well done, and I enjoyed some of the music, though I did notice that some of the music sounded like generic loops from Garage Band were used.
Where this movie fell apart was the story and delivery. The story felt forced, where it needed more fleshing out and new characters seemed to drop from the sky and clash with the story instead of interweaving.
The characters were also annoying, with some just being outright vulgar and some screaming their lines as if screaming somehow validated their dialogue.
Eddie Murphy and his family seemed disconnected from each other, as if there had been a miscast of the actors. Their dialogue was shallow and the most disappointing thing was that it wasn't delivered with convincing tone and body language.
The movie had all the trappings of all of the common commercialized Christmas movies that are being released now days, case in point there were two prominent cans of brand-name paint on display in one of the first scenes of the movie.
This will not be a movie that I add to my yearly watch list by no means.