Christmas Party Crashers

Greetings, salutations, and a seasonal welcome to all you movie aficionados. Here are my considerations and recommendation for The Christmas Crashers.

Story: 1.25/2 - Direction and Pace: 2.50/4 - Performances: 1.25/2 - Enjoyment: 1.25/2

Total 6.25/10

These Christmas Party crashers are an enjoyable pair to watch. Tara and Tre are looking to get their businesses off the ground, and they've realised they'll need some help. That help comes from a reluctant and unknowing source; Elliott Everest and his influencer daughter London. Tara and Tre have the same idea - crash Everest's Annual Christmas Party. Tara, being a computer geek, has hacked her way onto the invite list. However, they're only accepting tickets at the door, which she doesn't possess. Encouraging Tre to help out, she sneaks them inside. Once inside, they have to pass themselves off as the family's friends so they can schmooze their way into pushing their business ideas. Of course, things go astray, and the pair end up digging a hole for themselves, which they may not escape. This intricate twisting plotline keeps the story light and amusing while helping build the romantic relationship between Tre and Tara. Of course, their route won't be without bumps. Will they ride off into the sunset of Happily Ever After land? What makes the narrative work is the credible and robust characters. It's easy to see and relate to how easily this pair of loveable rogues dig their way ever deeper into their pit of deception. I especially liked London, who, on the surface, appears to be your stereotypical influencer but is much cannier and attuned than she first appears. And, if you loved the original Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, you'll like her dad, Elliott; he's much like Uncle Phil, which adds extra nostalgia points.

Luckily the cast is excellent, and Skye Townsend (Tara) and Jaime Callica (Tre) possess charming on-screen chemistry. I liked how Townsend played Tara a little more down-to-earth, while Callica added a joyfulness and fun side to Tre. The combination worked wonderfully well: As did the director's direction. They infuse the entire picture with a light-heartedness and heart-warming atmosphere. And even though there are a few poor compositions along the way, most are sound.

On the whole, The Christmas Crashers is an enjoyable and romantic way to waste an hour and a half in this season of goodwill. I'd happily recommend it to all.

Please check out my HO! HO! HO! Christmas Belles list to see where I ranked the movie.

Take Care, Stay Well, And Best Wishes For A Merry Christmas.

The Christmas Crashers/Christmas Party Crashers (2022) -

The leading characters Tara and Tre weren't exactly the charming lovelies that I'm used to from these films, but it was easier to connect with Tre, played by Jaime M. Callica, because he hadn't been quite as deceitful and seemed to be coerced, but even then I felt that he was a bit weak for being dragged through the mess and actually he didn't really feature that strongly in the film, considering he was the second one in the credits. There was too much time spent with everyone else trying to impress and not enough of the romantic connection itself, although it was fairly obviously there.

He did have a lovely little face though and he looked great in just a towel.

Tara, played by Skye Townsend on the other hand, was just a bit of a cow. Yeah she had issues outside of the fact that she was a liar and fraud and she couldn't immediately see how cute Tre was, but she was definitely not a character that I could appreciate or like.

The farce unfolded in an incredibly over the top way, as they infiltrated the successful Everest families home pretending to be a party planner and established clothes designer and it was more than a bit much at times. It also seemed to be a film full of stereotypes and 'Kardashian' wannabe's, which the world doesn't need any more of. In some ways it was like a cheap 'Fresh Prince Of Bel Air' (1990-6), without being as well put together.

Once again and in fact more than once, there was a lot of forgiveness ceded very easily on many fronts and that stretched belief a bit too far.

If Jaime hadn't been so cute, I would never have made it until the point where he was just in a towel, whereupon I decided to stick with it, just in case it happened again, but honestly, and I know I say this a lot, and I would, but I thought that it would be more likely that Tre was gay and that Tara would have found that London (Kajuana S. Marie), the Everests precocious and pretentious daughter, had a brother to fall for. Or that they would have both fought over him.

There just wasn't enough polish on this one to believe the high life they were supposed to be living and the attitude of the film was a bit nasty.

3.75/10.

I am so surprised that no one else noticed the scenes are out of order. After the car picks them up, they are shown decorating the tree, then it cuts back to them arriving at the mansion and them getting settled, then jumps back to Tara in pjs. This was really poorly edited. How did no one catch that before the film was released?! It could have been a cute rom com but it's hard to get past that glaring oversight. I'm all for a predictable storyline, as most holiday movies have them but this was just a bit lazy. Also, the antagonists knew each other like five minutes and suddenly were in love? I just don't know about this one...

Don't waste your time. Predictable, unfunny, best to avoid.

Not much more needs to be said. Flat, transparent, uninteresting, boring.

Clumsy writing from the firdt scene, every line telegraphing thr characters' back story.

When the two main characters meet we could write the rest ourselves.

Lacked any jokes whatsoever, just simplistic stuff.

Why a character limit? There's not much else to say about this stuff. Not even worth watching if there's nothing else on- you're better off watching nothing.

Back in the day we used to say 'straight to video' or DVD, but no-one would waste physical media with this.