Christmas With Dave Foley #12: Coopers' Camera

Okay, I guess I'm burned out a little this month. Sure, I've posted a lot, but some of the stuff hasn't been very good. Like this. In fact, mostly this. I guess this movie has an audience, but I'm not it. I've seen a lot of cringe comedy, and enjoyed a lot of Jason Jones' work in the past. But I didn't like the vast majority of this film, and the few bits I did like were overwhelmed by the horrific, cartoon awfulness of practically every member of this extended family.

I have two more posts to write, and I don't want to waste my energy working hard on a post about this movie -- it's already taken too much of my time. If the trailer makes you laugh out loud, this may be for you. It certainly isn't for me.

As a Christmas movie, I rate this 2/10. As I said, there are a handful of parts I liked.
As a spotlight for Dave, I rate this 2/10. I guess it's slightly better than Postal (probably), if you want to see a movie with Dave's penis.

25 Days of Christmas #9b: "Christmas Special"

This is the second Christmas episode of 30 Rock: "Christmas Special."

Everybody has Christmas plans, and they all go wrong: Liz's family cancels on the 22nd, and Jack's attempt to ditch his mother for nude-tanning and monkey-wrestling goes awry when he backs into her with his car. She's holed up in his apartment, and he can't take the closeness, so he orders the TGS staff to write and produce a big Christmas special in 48 hours. In an attempt to feel some familial love, Liz donates much too much to a Christmas charity, only to suspect she's been scammed (or, as Tracy would have it, "scrumped"). Her attempts to shut down the entire charity program don't go well.

"Dr. Williams said 'boundaries.'"

The staff are struggling with Jack's unreasonable demands, and Liz's grouchy complaints. Why, only Kenneth still feels the spirit of Christmas, and Liz takes him to see just how badly she was scrumped. It turns out that Kenneth was right -- children DID get the gifts from Liz, though she ends up stealing their faith in Santa in the vain hope of a hug.

Jenna, after expressing regret over not seeing the New Kids on the Block with her entourage, really gets into the spirit of singing her Christmas solo, along with her accompanist, Alonzo (seen here, played by Jeff Richmond, the show's composer and Tina Fey's husband, who's in three of the four 30 Rock Christmas episodes).

Jack continues to complain about Colleen's unreasonable behavior at Christmas, always inviting over her gentleman friend, Mr. Schwartz, and putting the moves on him with Jack in the room. Liz helps Jack to realize that the Donaghy family was very poor, and Mr. Schwartz's initials were FAO, and Colleen was just ensuring the kids had toys for Christmas.

So Jack's anger at his mother evaporates, and Jenna's solo turns into a fantasy singalong between Jack and Colleen, bringing the two of them together once again at Christmas.

As an episode of 30 Rock, I rate this 8.5/10 -- the one-liners are fast and thick here, and the twisty emotions of the characters are fun to follow. Bonus: they work on producing a show in this episode!
As a Christmas show, I rate this 9/10 -- charity, faith, love, family, and a heartwarming singalong are all I ask.

Christmas Special  30 Rock: Season 3