Happy Holidays From Black Savant Cinema!!

Regardless of what you celebrate this holiday season,

 make sure you enjoy it with the ones you love!! 

Happy Holidays, Happy Kwanzaa, Season's Greetings, Merry Christmas, and 

Happy Hanukkah!!

From Black Savant Cinema!!

Throwback Thursday "The Muppet Christmas Carol"

Today's feature is one to get you ready for the holidays in in a fun kind of way. How many of you remember "The Muppets", well today's 'Throwback Thursday' is that of The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Michael Caine is miserly Ebenezer Scrooge and Kermit the Frog is kindly Bob Cratchit in the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational take on the Dickens tale ever to star 99 percent Muppets.


This film was directed by Jim Henson's son, Brian. Taking over the puppeteering role of Kermit, originally performed by Jim Henson before his death in 1990, was Steve Whitmire. It was shot in Shepperton Studios, England and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Despite the use of Muppets throughout filming and a humorous spin on much of the story, this film is a fairly close adaptation of the original story. The film is even interspersed with scenes of a narrator (Gonzo playing Dickens), who, along with the characters, recites many of Dickens's original lines. One notable difference from the original story is the addition of Jacob Marley's brother, Robert, who was not present in Dickens' story. It is suggested this name was chosen as an oblique reference to musician Bob Marley. Another alteration involved changing the name of the character Fezziwig to Fozziwig, as Fozzie Bear played the role.*

This is the first Muppet movie in which the story revolves around characters played by human beings, specifically, Ebenezer Scrooge played by Michael Caine. The rest of the cast consisted of mostly Muppet performers. Several pivotal roles — in particular, the three Christmas Spirits — were portrayed by specially-created Muppet characters. It was at one time considered that well-known Muppets would be cast in these roles (Miss Piggy, Scooter, and Gonzo, specifically) before it was decided that it would detract from the ominous effect the spirits would need to convey. Only the Ghost of Christmas Present is clearly a muppet (albeit a giant one), while the Ghost of Christmas past is an etherial childlike spirit and the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come is a cloaked and terrifying figure as per tradition.* The film would also be dedicated to the memory of Jim Henson and Richard Hunt, two original Muppet performers, who died before the film's release.

This is an excellent re-telling of Dickens' classic, with the added twist of Muppet humor and charm. The Muppet characters fit Dickens' characters so well that it would be easy to think he had them in mind while writing. The music adds a magic to the movie that brings out all the emotion that Dickens wrote into the original novel. The story is so good that it would be real difficult to make a bad movie out of it. And the even greater thing about this film is that it is fitting for all ages not just children.





*Wikipedia

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to all!! Enjoy your friends and family on this wonderful day!!

Hopefully Santa was good to ya!!

Rewind Wednesday: Double Header Holiday Edition

Its Christmas Eve and I ask you this one question...Is Santa coming to your house tonight?!! Well I hope he drops off a little sumthin' for me!!

So today’s Rewind Wednesday: Holiday Edition is a double-header Scrooged and It’s a Wonderful Life. This is a personal shout out to a dear friend of mine, Radcliff who recommended Scrooged for the holiday list and why not with Christmas just a day away. And then to top it off I had to put another classic that would be near and dear to everyone’s heart.

Francis Xavier "Frank" Cross (Bill Murray) is a conceited, cynical television programming executive. He has found great success and wealth, but has become coldhearted and cruel. In the opening scenes he can be seen working out in a room with a wallpaper border that reads "Cross: A thing they nail people to".

This 1988 comedy film, is a modernization of Charles Dickens's novella, A Christmas Carol. Most of the characters in the movie represent characters in Dicken's A Christmas Carol. Frank Cross is Ebenezer Scrooge and his brother James is Scrooge's nephew Fred. Eliot Loudermilk and Grace seem to share the role of Bob Cratchit. Grace's son, who is withdrawn/autistic, is Tiny Tim. Lew Hayward, Frank's former boss, is Jacob Marley. Herman and his fellow indigents are the "portly gentlemen" who are collecting for charity and are refused financial help. Claire is Scrooge's former fiancée, Belle. The three ghosts have the same names. The Ghost of Christmas Past is a cab driver with a Brooklyn accent. The Ghost of Christmas Future appears as the grim reaper, with a TV screen for a face. The Ghost of Christmas Present is a campier female version of the ghost in the original story.

Next on the docket is a true Christmas movie for all generations!! It's a Wonderful Life (1946) is an American film produced and directed by Frank Capra and loosely based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern. The film is regarded as a classic and is a staple of Christmas television around the world, although, due to its high production costs and stiff competition at the box office, financially, it was considered a "flop." The film's break-even point was actually $6.3 million, approximately twice the production cost, a figure it never came close to achieving in its initial release. An appraisal in 2006 reported: "Although it was not the complete box-office failure that today everyone believes … it was a major disappointment and confirmed, at least to the studios, that Capra was no longer capable of turning out the populist features that made his films the must-see, money-making events they once were.

It's a Wonderful Life was nominated for five Oscars without winning any, but the film has since been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made, and placed number one on their list of the most inspirational American films of all time.
In 1990, It's a Wonderful Life was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.

In 2002, Channel 4 ranked It's A Wonderful Life as the seventh greatest film ever made in their poll, "The 100 Greatest Films" and in 2006, It's A Wonderful Life reached #37 in Channel 4's "100 Greatest Family Films" poll. It's A Wonderful Life currently ranks 30th on the IMDB's top 250.

In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten top Ten" — the best 10 films in 10 "classic" American film genres — after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. It's a Wonderful Life was acknowledged as the third-best film in the fantasy genre.

A more iconoclastic viewpoint was expressed by Wendell Jamieson in a 2008 New York Times article, which posited that the film "is a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams, of seeing your father driven to the grave before his time, of living among bitter, small-minded people. It is a story of being trapped, of compromising, of watching others move ahead and away, of becoming so filled with rage that you verbally abuse your children, their teacher and your oppressively perfect wife.

Merry Christmas!!

Hilarious...Fall out my chair funny

Wow this movie was truly unexpected for me!! How you ask well I figured it would be funny, but I didn't realize the magnitude of it. This romantic comedy film definitely brings the laughter as well as a message of importance. "Sometimes one has to step from beyond the norm, if you want true happiness."

Four Christmases stars Vince Vaughn (Brad) and Reese Witherspoon (Kate) as a San Francisco, California couple who have every intention of going to Fiji together for Christmas, making sure they avoid visiting all four of their divorced parents' homes. Their idea of a holiday vacation includes sipping margaritas by the pool and couples massages, but not this year! With shorts and sunglasses packed, Brad and Kate are trapped at the San Francisco airport by a fogbank that cancels every outbound flight. And to make matters even worse they are caught on tape by a local news crew, which reveals there whereabouts to the city...and worse yet their families. Now they have no choice but to visit their families for some holiday cheer. With no escape, With no escape and no excuses, they are now expected home by Brad's Father (Robert Duvall) and Kate's mother (Mary Steenburgen), as well as Brad's mother (Sissy Spacek) and Kate's father (Jon Voight), thereby celebrating four Christmases in one day. With each homecoming visit they are both thrown into a marathon of events. However in the midst of all the family drama, Kate has an epiphany and finds herself playing another tune, while Brad is singing his way to freedom.

At the end of the day both Brad and Kate have a new perspective on where their current relationships stands and where they are headed to. With each visit to their parents both discover a little more about each other as well as themselves, finally giving themselves a chance to truly "love" each other .

In this film Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn demonstrate a great character chemistry which keeps the audience captivated. This film not only brought the comedy side of Christmas but at the same time delievered the holiday messages we are all use to hearing. It was also pleasantly surprising to see the likes of Reese witherspoon and Vince Vaughn teamed up with screen legends Robert DuVall and Jon Voight. A great Christmas film to add to the books!

Grade: B+

Rewind Wednesday: Holiday Edition

Now this movie right here is a pure Holiday classic. I had to put this one on the Rewind Wednesday, without a shadow of doubt. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation done in 1989,
would be the third installment in the National Lampoon's Vacation film series.

It's Christmas time and the Griswolds are preparing for a family seasonal celebration, but things never run smoothly for Clark, his wife Ellen and their two kids. Clark's continual bad luck is worsened by his obnoxious family guests, but he manages to keep going knowing that his Christmas bonus is due soon.

A classic scene from the movie.



For many people this is a favorite Christmas movie for all time! It's so funny and it has an excellent cast as well as great acting! You are sure to have non-stop laughs and I highly recommend all people who love comedies to rent this or better yet buy it! Its really that funny! This is one of those films that you gotta have in your collection. I remember we use to watch this every Christmas back in the day. Even to this day I can still watch this movie over and over again.

The movie would debut at #1 at the box-office while grossing $11,750,203 during the opening weekend. It would then go on to gross a total of $71,319,546 in the United States while showing in movie theaters. Not only did it profit in its box-office performance, the movie has made $34,800,000 in rental profits.

Another great scene of this movie.


A true classic Christmas comedy!!

Rewind Wednesday: Home Alone

Season Greetings and Happy Holidays!!

For this month on the Director's Cut we will be showing some throwback holiday flicks in honor of the Holiday season. So today's Rewind Wednesday is none other than Home Alone.

This 1990 Christmas film would catapult young Macaulay Culkin into a household name. Not only did it create a successful sequel, but other studios were left to duplicate its winning formula to lesser degrees. An 8- year-old, who is accidentally left behind while his family flies to France for Christmas, has to defend his home against idiotic burglars. Directed by Chris Columbus, the film also featured Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, and the late John Candy. This film would result into the third highest grossing film of all time.


Now after this film did you not have the sudden urge to want to be with your family? I sure did even despite all of the stress and commotion. Well lets see what other's think as well:

Do you enjoy spending the holidays with your family?
__ YES

__ No, its too stressful

__ Sometimes


Let us know what you think!!