Chabert Watch: Lost in Paradise (2026)

Watched: 01/04/2026

Format:  Hallmark

Viewing:  First

Director:  Dustin Rikert

Job: head of a premier fashion design studio

Location of story:  Fiji

new skill:  jungle and beach survival

Man:  Ian Harding

Job of Man: Chef!

Goes to/ Returns to: Goes to Fiji

Event:  Plane crash

Food:  fish

Again, I'd love to know what stats the Hallmark Channel has about viewership when they have Lacey Chabert in a movie.  Because someone ran the numbers and was able to show that sending a Hallmark crew and stars to Fiji was going to be profitable.

It's not the first time Chabert has wrangled a destination movie.  I've seen her in movies filmed in Malta, Ireland (once as Ireland, once doubling as Scotland), vague Europe, South Africa, Italy and I think Greece.  And for the US, I know she went to Hawaii for a movie.  I feel like she's been in Manhattan at some point.

Somehow Fiji feels particularly nuts, but off to Fiji this movie went.  

Not for my Demographic Watch: 13 Going on 30 (2004)

Watched:  01/02/2025

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  First

Director:  Gary Winick

So, yeah, this movie was never aimed at me.  I'm fine with that.  It wasn't aimed at me in 2004 when I was 29, and in 2026, it's even less for me.  

It's also not very good.  And not good in ways that I don't really understand.  YMMV with Jennifer Garner as a lead, but mostly the movie is a mess while also managing to feel... boring.  

It's another in a long line of movies about someone who is young getting to be an adult - like Big, Vice-Versa or...  Shazam, I guess.  Oddly, Jenna (as a teen played by Christa B. Allen and by Garner as a 13-year-old) really wants to be... thirty?  

I'll buy the magic as the conceit, sure!  I've bought Duck Planet refugees and Ewoks.   

Mystery Watch: Wake Up Dead Man - a Knives Out Mystery (2025)

Watched:  01/01/2026

Format:  Netflix

Viewing:  First

Director:  Rian Johnson

Look, I am in the bag a bit for these movies at this point.  I am not averse to a good murder mystery, and I like a quirky detective.  And since jump, I've been onboard with Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc.  

I had planned to go see this upon its theatrical release, but a confluence of events prevented this.  For good or ill, it's a Netflix movie, and after two weeks or so, they shuttled the movie over to the streamer and we finally had time to watch it.  

Honestly, I hadn't heard much about this one, and Howard gave it his usual 2.5 stars, which told me nothing, Howard.  Nothing!  And I would be more charitable than Howard, but I am also always kinder or meaner than Howard, who shoots straight down the middle most days.

In general, Wake Up Dead Man fit the bill just fine for a movie for a New Years Day.  A solid cast, an engaging mystery I was never going to solve on my own, and Kerry Washington (we will always grant extra points for Kerry Washington).