December Recommendation: The Polar Express

 

        After multiple recommendations of two Disney versions of A Christmas Carol I decided to spice things up a bit for this upcoming Christmas. The Polar Express was one of those films since its release I in my own view avoided, mainly because back then I was a high school teen, who didn't know a whole lot about anything and so, I didn't feel the need to watch this great Christmas film. Well, as fate would have it my parents asked me to join them in watching The Polar Express and I was immediately hooked. Granted this was one of the many films that director Robert Zemeckis did for which is exceptionally great, though some of his films in my opinion are at times hit and misses.

        A young boy, who has grown skeptical of Santa Claus is shocked to see a train stop outside his window on Christmas Eve, destined for the North Pole. When he accepts the invitation from the conductor to climb on board, he embarks on a white-knuckle ride to Santa's Headquarters, where he makes fast friends and learns the invaluable lesson about the true spirit of Christmas.

        Having loved the book by Chris Van Allsburg, Tom Hanks in 1999 optioned the movie rights with the hope of both the Conductor and Santa Clause, Allsburg at first wasn't all in on selling the film rights but later agreed on the hearing of Hank's involvement. With the help of both Robert Zemeckis and screenwriter William Broyles Jr. who surprisingly wrote two past Tom Hanks classics, the rest became history. Surprisingly enough this was the first ever animated film that's not produced by Disney and Pixar, hence Warner Brothers was the true hero in making this great Christmas, for which really if you’re making a Christmas movie like this Disney and Pixar would obviously make this worse though in all fairness this was way before Disney turned into a complete monster. Long before James Cameron came along with Avatar, the Polar Express was the first movie to use motion capture animation to bring this great world of Polar Express to life, so, in all fairness this movie was the first to accomplish this, moreover was listed in the 2006 Guinness Book of world records as the "first all-digital capture" film, so deep down Cameron is NOT the first to accomplish motion capture, thus SUCK IT CAMERON. Anyway getting back to the movie, what really makes the film special is that this is every kid who gets to that age and is skeptic about the belief of Santa Clause and that's always a dishearten thing because you should never lose your faith in Saint Nick, I mean if you’re going to lose faith in one mystical character you should lose your faith on the Easter Bunny because the bunny has no connection to Jesus furthermore was in roots of paganism so, yeah St. Nick is the inspiration to Santa and Easter Bunny should be mocked about having nothing to do with Jesus dying for our sins. Okay enough blabbering, with this movie you follow and care for these characters from beginning to the very end, and even watching the film for the second time I know what's going to happen but still on the edge of my seat when something drastic happens and yet by the end of it all your still over joyed on these kids being okay by the end of it. Furthermore this movie also shows off the great acting in Tom Hanks who plays close to every character in the movie, I mean obviously you know he's playing the Conductor, and yet you slowly see that he's also playing Santa Clause and the way he plays St. Nick is just awesome and more of a believable performance of Santa that I've honestly never seen in past Christmas films, mainly because you can see his presence on screen and see, how gentle he is as well as being calm when talking to the kids and the way Hanks portrays all of his characters is outstanding. Even after twenty years, since the film’s release and seeing the films rating on Rotten Tomatoes for which is at a fifty-five percent rating, in which is not bad but deep down should be at least a 99 percent moreover I still after living thirty-nine years of my life, I truly believe that critics today are nothing but trolls and have been trolls ever since the formation of movie critics and even watching this film twice I'm just bewildering on the critics, criticism and want to ask them politely "WHAT DO YOU WANT YOU P*ICKS?" I mean it’s an animated Christmas movie, what do you want? Either way, this is a lesson to never listen to movie critics for a gillion reasons, they don't know what the hell they’re talking about. Now I know that this is terrible taste, because it's a family film, but through the course of the train sequences especially when it comes to serving the kids hot chocolate, in the back of my mind all I'm thinking about is if there another dimension of some sorts where a Bill Cosby train is coming to your neighborhood, it's probably best that you don't go on that train especially when it comes to either kids or any young women getting lost on Christmas, because you never know what he puts in the pudding or jiggle Jell-O, jigglers and even I would not want to know what's in them, and even at a young age, fi you’re not sure on whether to go on the train or not the brain on the young child or woman's head should be shouting "RUN, RUN FOR DEAR LIFE", or in Dave Chappelle's words of wisdom "RUN B*TCH, RUN". So all jokes aside sorry not sorry on the Bill Cosby joke, for this Christmas week I would highly recommend watching The Polar Express, this was a great treat to watch and after living through a year with some ups and massive downs especially when it came to watching sports, The Polar Express give's the greatest gift of having more faith in Santa Clause though I'm personally have believed Santa was real, but also has the great theme of belief still having the belief in Santa no matter how bad the world is getting and not going great, the month of Christmas should always be a cherish time of believing as well as sharing love and care for one another especially those who don't have the belief or going through rough times. Now I've seen many Christmas movies in my time but if I had to make a list of my top five greatest Christmas films, I got to say that it's a close tie between The Polar Express and George C. Scott's, A Christmas Carol and in all fairness they're both in a close tie all because of their great performance in the lead actors who portray each of their characters. So, in the limited time we have before Christmas, I give you a salute and say, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!