Plenty of ideas are toyed with, but none get fleshed out. There is no time to really develop the relationships in the liquor store. Clocking in at barely 90 minutes, this is a short film to a fault. Much like the character of Eric, it really missteps through no fault of its own. So where does Netflix Original El Camino Christmas go wrong? Nobody here feels new or unique by genre standards, but they’re characters who talk and act like human beings, played by actors who clearly see their appeal. It does start to fall apart towards the end, but the thing that occurred to me as soon as Vicente’s liquor store became under siege is that I was really enjoying the company of these characters. Early on, these things are all deftly balanced. Characters have quirks without being caricatures the comedy is silly without being outright slapstick. The various mistakes and cover-ups of El Camino’s remarkably inept law enforcement team are presented as idiotic and desperate, rather than truly insidious. The characters are decently-written and believable. El Camino Christmas is as much a comedy as it is a tragedy and a familial drama and a couple of other things, so Eric’s run of bad luck is at first played for laughs. Talbert handles the setup surprisingly well. In the absence of any better options, and mindful of the fact we wouldn’t have a movie if he didn’t, Eric decides to take the hostages. In the store with Eric and Hooker are the conman Eric met the night before, halfway through a seasonal booze stock-up, the proprietor, Vicente (Emilio Rivera), his employee, Kate (Michelle Mylett), and her mute son. But if he doesn’t, he’s suddenly a hostage-taker. What to do, Eric wonders? If he gives himself up Hooker will lie through his teeth. There’s a chase, and then a standoff at a local liquor store. Of course, Hooker runs into Eric on the road. To avoid any potential legal ramifications, Hooker’s deputy, Billy Calhoun (Dax Shepherd), allows Eric to go on his merry way. The sheriff, Carl Hooker, is a bullying, bigoted alcoholic who physically abuses Eric while he’s in custody. What he finds instead is a drunken conman (Tim Allen) who lives in his dad’s old apartment, and a corrupt local sheriff (Vincent D’Onofrio) who busts him for a string of made-up offenses. I guess that counts.Įric Roth (Luke Grimes) arrives in the fictional town of El Camino looking for a father he’s never met. But it’s really just a bog-standard genre movie that happens to have some Christmas trees and decorations in the background of most scenes. It’s set during the festive period, sure, and it’s being released in December, and the soundtrack is full of ironic Christmassy good cheer. El Camino Christmas is only notionally a Christmas movie. And as my real-life job is doing this s**t… well, here we are.Īnyway, don’t let the title fool you. (I hope his real-life employer doesn’t read the site.) But seeing as El Camino Christmas slithered into the thumbnails relatively low-key, he got all panicky about it and messaged me. Netflix Dan the Netflix Man, aka our very own Dan Hart, usually books the day off of his real-life job to cover them. See, I don’t typically review these things. I found out about El Camino Christmas thanks mostly to Netflix being sneaky p****s and releasing an original movie that wasn’t listed on our usual schedule. Netflix Original El Camino Christmas Director
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |