Immer wieder Weihnachten

Family safe - no bad language or encouragement to lie, cheat, steal, or mock This is one Christmas movie that doesn't need fake snow (although there's enough of that too). Partly filmed in Ontario, Canada, on the shores of the Great Lakes, it's got plenty of the seasonal white stuff around in all the outdoor shots. The actors don't look too hot in their heavy winter clothing, and their breath sometimes frosts quite naturally. It's refreshing.

Zachary (Wimpy Kid) Gordon doesn't quite have the comedy chops of Bill Murray, but he's believable and sweet as a teen caught up in his own family's version of the day that keeps repeating until he gets it right. He's supported by some strong Canadian talent - Molly Parker as his overworked mom and Peter DaCunha as his too-perfect little brother - as well as Americans recognizable from a good range of decent television. Bruce Dern gives a solid performance as grouchy Grandpa.

Some slapstick and pratfalls but a lot of the humour is sweet rather than mocking. This is a series of small stories framed by, rather than tightly focusing on, Pete gaining maturity enough to see what he truly does want most for Christmas.

Everyone in the family (except for the grandparent) were so annoying, they were driving me mad! At the end is Ok.

We've all been there, even in a loving family, regardless of gender :) It's nice to watch how Pete sorts out his teen angst, finds his maturity and deals with the dichotomies of family love. Bruce Dern is fantastic :) It's fun to watch these uptight, self-focused people - kids and grownups alike, become derailed and find themselves, each other, and their family again, not necessarily in that order. It's one of my favourite Christmas movies. First saw it one year when I was watching *all* the Christmas movies, and this was one of the best. A lot of them were coming out of Canada at that time. Another one I liked was "Father Christmas, Who?", with Leslie Nielsen. Anyway, it has a lot of fun moments, a lot of sweetness, with the disappointments of real life treated gently.

Pete Kidder (Zachary Gordon) is having a bad Christmas. He makes a bad first impression with new neighbor Katie (Bailee Madison). He can't do anything right. His dad got downsized. His grandfather is judgmental. His mother's cooking has gone wrong. His brothers are annoying. Then Christmas day starts again.

This has some good adult actors (Bruce Dern, Molly Parker, Rick Roberts). The filmmaking is lackluster. The kid is rather average. That's both fitting and a little bland. The first repeat should have done more. Instead, the movie skips a lot of it and it keeps skipping. He keeps doing the same thing for far too long. It's not that hard. This Groundhog Day premise should have faster progression and Pete is just too whiney. He's also a little bit of an idiot and not the funny kind. I can't believe that the older kids are still talking about Santa with respect to the presents. Grandpa should not be tried so early. He should be left all to the last act to finish the movie. There is a better progression to be done. The premise could work with better writing.

A very derivative but likeable Christmas TV movie, centring on Pete, the less-loved, put-upon middle child of three boys born to affable middle-aged American parents. After he has a nothing-else-could-surely-go-wrong Christmas Day with his family, a meteor shower occurs and hey presto, the young man wakens up the next day only to find he has rewound in time to relive his whole wretched Christmas Day experience all over again. So, amongst other things, he gets no present, gets the blame for ruining the family Christmas dinner, gets pelted with snowballs by the local heavies, also clobbered by same at the inter-neighbourhood festive American football game and joint worst of all, blows his chance of romance with the pretty new girl who arrives next door and sees his dad and grinchy old grandad argue to the point where gramps walks out on the family before the end of the day. Same day by same day, like a junior Bill Murray, he rights every wrong, closing on the real biggie, reconciling his dad and grandad to break the loop at last.

So it's pretty obviously a Christmas edition of "The Wonder Years" meets "Groundhog Day" the latter right down to young Pete using his repeat time to learn a musical instrument from scratch and find a way to his initially reluctant girl's heart, but it's all done so openly, inoffensively and amicably, plus it's only a Christmas T.V. show for pity's sake, your surname would have to be Scrooge for you not to be mildly entertained at the very least.

The two young male and female leads give nice performances in their Kevin and Winnie-type roles and Bruce Dern is the most recognisable cast member as the hard hearted old grandfather. The only really objectionable thing for me about this otherwise pleasant Christmas movie was the wishy-washy original music trilling away in the background but for fans of the two sources mentioned, this is a nice little film to while away the time if you're stuck indoors at Christmas with nothing much to do.