True Legend (2010, R)

This Chinese film is almost like two separate movies (as I guess the title implies a sort of dichotomy).  The first half plays out like a legend of a great military fighter and a supernaturally powered despot.  The second half is the true story of the man who created a new style of martial Wu-Shu fighting (Drunken Fist, like in Legend Of The Drunken Master with Jackie Chan, though I think this film is far superior), both about the same character/actor.  I really liked both parts and think they were very well done.  The visual quality (film stock, etc) was very good for a foreign film, and the special effects were for the most part seamless (there were a couple parts where a bird or carved mountain was obvious CG animation, but otherwise solid).  Much of the fighting was done with wirework, but it still looked clean.  The fighting was a treat to see, and reminded me of some Dragonball Z fights minus the fireballs and aliens (I mean this in the best possible way).  The story wasn't overly complex like Dune or Watchmen (the graphic novel more so than the film), but that's fitting for a legend/fairy tale and for a true story.

This film includes appearances by Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, 007: Tomorrow Never Dies) and David Carradine (Kill Bill, the Kung-Fu tv series), both of whom performed their roles very competently but did not steal the scene.  The acting was competent for all of the actors actually, even for the main character's son.  I liked the character arc, the various things he had to overcome and how he overcame them.

If you liked the films Ip Man/Ip Man 2, or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon; the graphic novel Infinite Kung-Fu; the video game Jade Empire; or the show Dragonball/Dragonball Z, then I think you'll love this movie.  During most of the movie I had a big dumb grin plastered on my face and I'm pretty sure it was only partly due to the tasty beverage in my hand (which makes me embrace any story a bit more).  I wish this movie was around when I was younger and that I'd had a copy of it: it's a top-notch sleepover movie.  It takes only a small amount of generosity for me to give it a 5 star rating.

The Polar Express (2004, PG)

This computer animated family features is based on the 1989 book by Chris Van Allsubrg.  While the CG is not nearly as impressive as Beowulf (which had freakin' awesome animation!), I must admit that it is pretty visually similar to the art of the original book.  The story is about a boy whose belief in Santa Claus is waning and a train to the North Pole pulls up in front of his house to take him and some other children to see Santa.  Maybe it would be more accurate to say that the movie is inspired by the book rather than based on it, because the book was like 20 pages and the movie was an hour an a half, so you know they padded it significantly.  They definitely added more adventure to the movie compared to the simple wonderment of the book.  Kind of interesting is that Tom Hanks (Big, Toy Story) voiced almost every adult male character in the film including the main character's (Hero Boy) adult narration, the train conductor (who probably has the most lines in the movie) and Santa Claus.  Eddie Deezen voiced Know-It-All Boy (I love the names of these characters: they didn't introduce themselves to each other in the story, so we have only their characteristics to go off of) but you might recognize the actor more from his role as Mandark from Dexter's Laboratory.  Man, that's a great cartoon voice.  Also the singer in the elf band looks remarkably like Stephen Tyler from the band Aerosmith and is in fact voiced by him.  It doesn't focus on the religious significance of Christmas, but on the presents (they're kids, after all) and on the family/love atmosphere.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993, PG)

This claymation feature is about Jack Skellington (who is a skeleton), the Pumpkin King and the figurehead of Halloween Town.  In this story there is a realm for the mascots if you will of each of several major holidays.  Jack is getting tired of Halloween, and he finds some magic trees through which one can travel to the other holiday towns and stumbles into Christmas Town.  The gist of the story is that Jack thinks Christmas looks pretty cool and he wants to give it a try.  I wanted to love this movie more than I did, because of its huge cult following, but it was still fun.  The animation was quite good: not quite as seamless as a Wallace And Grommit film, but then again it was far more visually complex.  I like to see actual stop-motion claymation features... it just feels like the film has more heart when they have to get their hands dirty (literally) to make it.  I also enjoy a computer animated feature from time to time, but the fact of the CG is not a selling point for me.  I thought it was really cool that the creatures in Halloween Town were both spooky and cute at the same time, so the visual style was my favorite part of the movie.  The film was also quite well-saturated with musical numbers and some dancing.

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010, R)

This Finnish film starts with an [American?] excavation crew trying to unearth "the original Santa Claus" from beneath a mountain just across the Russian border (from Finland).  The main character is a little boy named Pietari whose father -and many of the other nearby families- are reindeer herders.  Pietari looks up the old tales in some books and finds out that the original Santa is far more fearsome than the Coca-Cola mascot we know today, more like Krampus (link to Wikipedia article).  Northern European films that I've seen have had a really solid ratio of quality: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Dead Snow, Let The Right One In... there's not a bad or mediocre movie in the bunch!  However I've had an unfortunately low ratio of movies that I've liked out of films that were written and directed by the same person.  Fortunately the Northern quality won out in this case.

He-Man & She-Ra: A Christmas Special (1985, TV-Y7)

I haven't seen He-Man since I was a little guy, so I don't remember hardly any of it other than what a couple of the main characters kind of look like.  This was a TV special that was about twice the length of a normal episode (just under an hour without commericals), and it ends up with the first time Christmas is celebrated in Eternia.  It starts off with preparations for the twins' birthday party (I presume He-Man and She-Ra, or at least their human alter-egos, are the twins) which [the queen?] notes is a similarly large and similarly timed celebration to the Earth holiday of Christmas.  I guess she's been to Earth before and/or heard about it?  I'll say right here (and you can probably deduce from my post so far) that this movie is intended for people who are already He-Man/She-Ra fans.  If you're nostalgic for those characters and shows, then this will be a fun holiday special for you.  You'll see a smorgasbord of characters you've been longing to see all in the same place at the same time.  But, if you're not already a fan, then you'll be lost in the absurdly-descriptively-named characters and cheesy dialogue.

The Sleeping Beauty (2010, R)

Not to be confused with the similarly titled Sleeping Beauty starring Emily Browning (Sucker Punch), this French film ( originally entitled La Belle Endormie) is a small twist on the original fairy tale.  It's in a slightly more modern setting, but that doesn't impact the film very much, especially at first.  The interesting thing about this story is that most of it follows the sleeping 6-year-old princess Anastasia (unconnected to the daughter of Czar Nicholas of Russia) through her dreams during her prolonged slumber.  It's kind of like Alice In Wonderland but a little less wacky or like The Wizard Of Oz minus the ensemble cast (there are other characters in this film, but the only main character is Anastasia).  Each dream or story segment often works as its own short story (the first one especially feels more like the climax of another story) and often feel like a classic fairy tale. 

The movie very much changes gears for the final segment after she wakes up 100 years later but looking 10 years older (not sure why the difference), at which point the film becomes more of a romance movie.