Rettet Weihnachten!

Some people take everything so seriously. This is a fun Christmas film that I have witnessed being enjoyed by a large group aged from 4 to 72. It is no classic but is good fun with all the characters to see the good versus bad battle. Just relax with a mince pie and your favourite tipple - or a nice cuppa - and enjoy this harmless festive fun film.

A 9-year-old boy Tom finds Santa Claus in his garden shed after Santa crashes his sleigh. Desperate to return to Lapland in time for Christmas, Santa asks Tom and his dad Steve for help. It's just a few days before Christmas, and his reindeer are found running loose through the streets of London.

Give it a watch. It is harmless fun. Jim Bradbent is a brilliant Santa and adds to his catalogue of very different roles. Rafe Spall is excellent as the dad released from prison trying to help his young son surrounded by cynical people in all guises. Kit Connor is the 9 year old boy who is the star of the movie and is excellent.

Father Christmas has lost control of his new sleigh on its first test drive. Santa, the reindeer and the sleigh are scattered all over London with only two days to Christmas. Tom, whose father has just got out of prison, finds Santa in the shed at the bottom of his garden.

Chris Broadbent is superb as Santa. The rest of the cast does a good job. Though while she's Dr Who I keep expecting Jody Whitaker to whip out her sonic screwdriver. The production is pretty good while scenery and CGI are variable; Elf City is great but the flying sequences are so-so.

It works as a comedy, a gentle adventure and as an uplifting Christmas story. It is child safe but just for your information: in Europe The North Pole and Lapland are interchangeable as Santa's home. Also the northern lights are definitely something to do with Santa.

I like: The way that Christmas letters are redirected to wherever Santa is. The way the rendeer communicate. The squirrel.

Very cute movie even for Grams!! I was hooked from the beginning. Personally I think the title could have been a bit catchier. My grandson has tried to get me to watch this movie for a few years now. I just thought it was some sort of twist on a holiday gangster movie using Santa as the culprit. ** my discovery? -->> NOT AT All !! Finally in November 2018 I watched it for the first time. And it was really cute. Santa in fact, continues to reinforce various characters throughout the movie, as well as the screen viewers believability in the magic of Christmas. It's a must see for just about any Christmas movie buff. Except I will have to say that it's not really suitable for younger children, probably 7yrs old and under.

Before we start our regularly schedule review, lets crate context.

In the early days of Hollywood, x-mas movies were an oddity. They were in the process of finding themselves. Films like Miracle on 34th Street 1946 and Its a Wonderful Life 1947 (offically an X-mas tale because the story takes place around X-mas) were the exception, not the rule.

Flash forward about 55 years or so and now you find that some countries (like Canada) have actually formed a cottage industry just turning out X-mas movies year after year, good story or bad, entertaining or not, just to feed the "maw" of the system. (Canada has even stooped so low as to remake a B--- version of Miracle on 34th Street 1946 ... apparently spurred on the US' horrific remake of the same film in 1994).

So, therein likes the issue. When X-mas movies become commoditized, it becomes a real challenge that break away from the homogeneous sludge that passes for holiday movies these days.

(Elf 2003 pulled it off -- wonderful and recommended).

This film is not going to win any awards, but it holds the attention and has some really marvellous comedy bits buried here and there. (The "Crazy Jimmy Claus routine is worth the whole movie.) Recommended.

This dry, wry, sometimes snarky Christmas tale touches buttons from the ridiculous to the very human, neatly and surely.

Several standard American holiday tropes - Santa getting lost before the holiday, kids asking for their parents back, elves who need humans to save the day - are turned on their heads in inimitable Brit-film style. Jim Broadbent does Santa very well. There's a 'Bad Santa' element, Keystone-esque cops and prison guards, and some hilarious farting reindeer.

The simple human story of father and son bonding, of dad and step-dad and mom making peace with each other, is strong enough to be convincing. And heart-warming.