A good Christmas comedy, with added fantasy. <em>'Genie'</em> is, admittedly, not a massively Christmassy film, it's more so set at Xmas rather than directly about the festive holiday. It still offers positive vibes in that regard, though. The story is told and paced well, I thought it'd be more generic than it is - it's not anything necessarily unique, but watchable it is. It has hints of <em>'Aladdin'</em>, obvs, and <em>'Bruce Almighty'</em>. Melissa McCarthy is well chosen for the titular role, I found her to be entertaining throughout. This is the first time I've seen Paapa Essiedu act and I'd saw his performance in this is solid, he gives enough. Luis Guzmán is the best of the rest, even via a relatively small showing. Interesting that this is a remake of a 1991 television flick, which also had Richard Curtis behind the scenes and Alan Cumming onscreen; as Bernard in fact, so quite cool to see him return in this in a different role. I'll have to give that original a watch some day.
