Christmas

My Christmas
$18.98
I like christmas music, and I also like alot of different types of music myself. I have gotten Steven Curtis Chapman, BeBe & CeCe, Joshua Redman all lately. I have never gotten a cd by Andrea Bocelli and now I wonder what I have been missing. This is a great complelaton of christmas songs, most pretty traditional but beautuful to say the least. The tone of his voice and the range is so beauiful. This is be playing in my cd player long after christmas is over, and I hope Santa puts a few more of his cds under my tree.

Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage
$19.98
I purchased "Thomas Kincade's Christmas Cottage" DVD recently because, after looking at the cover and reading the back, it seemed like it would be a heart-warming family Christmas movie. I was very wrong. "Thomas Kincade's Christmas Cottage" is definitely NOT a family film. It's chock full of foul language and sexual innuendos. To top it off, there's barely a mention of the real meaning of Christmas.

Just out of curiosity, I kept a running tally of curse words:

Da*n: 9 times
Go to H*ll, Da*n it to H*ll, H*ll-of-a-Lot, Sure as H*ll, H*ll: 7 times
A*s: 1 time
Bi*ch: 1 time
Bi*ching: 1 time

Other offensive things:

The main character's father says to him, at one point, "What's the matter, aren't you getting any?" (and gestured to his son's crotch)

The main character's father brings his two sons their Christmas present......2 stacks of PORN magazines, which he proceeds to open and lustfully look through one of the magazines.

A scantily clad, busty woman with her cleavage hanging out was very suggestive to the preacher in the movie as well as other men...saying things in a seductive voice like, "I know how to turn things on" when asking to be the one chosen to turn on the town's Christmas Tree during the lighting ceremony. And, the preacher lustfully looking at her and smiling......By the way, she was chosen to portray Jesus' mother Mary.

LOTS of scenes in bars, people drinking hard liquor, smoking, being crass, etc.

The day I first bought the movie, I sat down with my husband and our 5 year old daughter, hoping to watch a warm and fuzzy Christmas family film. THANK GOD our daughter was too tired to watch it. We turned it off after 5 minutes. So, I ended up watching it by myself and am SO thankful that she didn't see it! I shudder to think of all the young children that will see this movie with their parent's because their parent's have NO idea that what they're about to watch is inappropriate.

Look, I'm no prude. I enjoyed watching "The Matrix" and other films that happen to have some bad language, but here's the difference....those films were Rated R and I KNEW they were for adults...not children. The "Christmas Cottage" is rated PG, but should have been PG-13.

I found this movie in a "Family Film" section so I expected it to be something at least SAFE and CLEAN for me and my family to watch, not the filthy piece of trash that I saw in "The Christmas Cottage". Thomas Kincade should be ashamed to have his name on this film....I can't believe he produced it. If I could have given it "0" stars I would have....it doesn't even deserve 1 star.

A Very Special Christmas Volume 7
$14.98
A VERY SPECIAL CHRISTMAS ALBUM: A KEY TO SPECIAL OLYMPICS GROWTH PAST AND FUTURE. Christmas is complete this year with the latest release of A Very Special Christmas, Volume 7. Contributing artists are regularly seen at the top of the charts and are some of today's most influential artists. The influence behind this record is to show the support of a new generation of artists for Special Olympics and its programs. Much of the growth of Special Olympics internationally as well as in hard-to-reach urban centers of the United States and the world is due to the phenomenal success of the A Very Special Christmas (AVSC) album series. Since the first groundbreaking AVSC album, a total of seven dynamic and commercially successful albums have been produced in the series. Approximately $100,000,000 in royalties and investment proceeds has been generated by the sale of the AVSC albums.

Four Christmases
$28.98
Did not have my sights set super high on this so my lower film rating has nothing to do with outright disappointment, just had hoped for a longer run on the laughs.

The story of a happily unmarried couple having to deal with the four Christmas/divorce visits during the holiday is timely, as even in my little store I have plenty of customers that have to do that very thing. As we follow them on their unplanned journey the laughs start right out but it tempers off into a spattering of schmaltz, sap and an overwhelming need to make it a baby story (although the alternate ending was better in staying away from this).

The Blu clarity shows some beautiful Bay Area skylines, but the CGI falters with all of the car driving interiors and fake fog at SFO. The sound was uneventful, but was clear enough to hear the edits and bad voice-overs in certain scenes. The supplements are what gives this 3.5-star film a little bump.

* 10:30 minute making of. Clip heavy and reliant on some fluffy interviews from most of the cast. The prevalent theme is everyone had "fun" making this.
* 13:00 minute HBO First Look. Very clip heavy and the few remaining bits are average.
* 9:00 minutes of deleted scenes. Forgettable except for the alternate ending where they focus on the adults (in the future) instead of being about having a kid.
* 10:00 minute 7 Layers of Holiday Meals. A cooking channelish clip with Katy Mixon (much funnier in Eastbound & Down: The Complete First Season) and a host making their dip - tried to enjoy it but was just painfully awkward.
* 2:30 minute gag reel. Now this was how the film should have been - this relaxed and genuinely funny. Reese Witherspoon has a beautiful smile and we never see it once in this film, but she lit up the gag reel here. It was nice to see Favreau and Vaughn have those funny moments on screen together even though it was not in the film. Skip all of the other supplements and just watch this one.

The second disc is the Digital Copy and the code gets you another hit at their site towards getting that free BD from Warner. Should have been 100x funnier, but I understand the need to make it holiday-friendly and sappy. Enjoy.