Thinking about Christmas

While walking around West Edmonton Mall today. I'd better get seriously organized...  it's not really that far away!

Update: "Christmas in Wonderland"

Readers of this blog may remember that during this past summer I was enjoying observing movie development in action - the filming of "Christmas in Wonderland" at West Edmonton Mall.

With actors in it like Patrick Swayze, Tim Curry, Carmen Electra, and Chris Kattan I thought it would be a bit of a local hit come Christmas but it didn't appear on the radar at all and I missed it (apparently it had a very low distribution). My daughter and I finally went to see it on Thursday. Our verdict?

Worst. Movie. Ever.

Worse than Tears of the Sun or Bats. Worse than Red Dawn!

It is supposed to be a "caper" comedy - although the premise (the Dad gets laid off right before Christmas, which threatens to ruin Christmas for the family) isn't really funny, people in the movie theatre were laughing alright - at the complete corniness of the movie, not because of plot or dialogue! There are a couple of terrible CGI images in the film, one where West Edmonton Mall looks like a huge shiny blue and pink castle and one that shows elves in the north pole that is truly painful. I'm struck with the thought that my dog might actually have been able to do better than this. How is it possible to spend so much time, effort and money and have it turn out so badly? Who could possibly watch this movie and okay it for release to the viewing public?

Roger Moore, reviewing the movie for the Orlando Sentinel said "Christmas in Wonderland kills Christmas and Chris Kattan's career in one fell Santa swoop." Read the rest of the review here.

I'm glad we went to see it because it did hold some special meaning for us - but the cold, hard truth is that it's an hour and 38 minutes of our lives we will never get back.

Christmas in Wonderland

Dinner tonight at Old Spaghetti Factory (WEM) provided additional entertainment as we watched the filming of a scene for the movie "Christmas in Wonderland" which is in production right now at West Edmonton Mall. The scene (performed by a couple of stunt doubles Jodi Stecyk and Troy Dorchester, filling in for actors Chris Kattan and Preston Lacy) involves a race through the mall on small motorbikes with some well placed mishaps on the way; culminating with a spectacular crash through a glass window overlooking the Waterpark - and a wet landing.

I found it very interesting to see first hand the amount of work and effort that goes into a production like this, especially the amount of time that it takes to set up for a scene that is actually only a few seconds long.