Last Christmas (2019)

Kate, a Bridget Jones type - read, 'annoying' - portrayed by Emilia Clarke, makes a mess of everything - love, work, and relationships including the relationship she has with her boss (Michelle Yeoh in her now perpetual role as a cantankerous Asian Tiger mom), so it makes sense Kate falls for Henry Golding's character - he's a messily conceived part-Willy Wonka pixie-saviour, part-Mr Darcy romantic stalwart slogging-around-on-a-bicycle - who inspires Kate to fix up her messes before the movie reaches an unlikely Christmas magic fantasy ending - a bit like if Bridget Jones suddenly visited Santa's North Pole workshop - but it's an ending that somehow, through all the mess, manages to be touching.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

The first twenty minutes include quirky animated graphics and laugh-out-loud moments that suggest a zingy 60s-style Hollywood romantic-comedic good-time and one that is refreshingly populated with an entirely gorgeous, entirely Asian cast, but this energy dissipates as quickly as the fun graphics vanish without trace as, early on, the heroine reveals herself to be a pouty dolt I wouldn't want marrying into my family either, the drama proves non-existent (in fact, the barely-there story is two lines of dialogue (one line delivered at the top of a staircase and the other delivered over a mahjong table), a side storyline (the only one) stands out as being as superfluous and unrelated to the whole as it is boring and badly acted, and really, it is only thank goodness for Chinese versions of Coldplay's Yellow and Madonna's Material Girl - and that fun first twenty minutes - that this is the least bit those two title adjectives.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS