Nativity Rocks!

Which figures, as the film is a dogs dinner. Glad I only paid for it a r kids club

"And after that, our Nativity's got better and better" - Mr Madden's (Nativity)

While the first sequel with David Tennant in the lead was a fair sequel, the second (with a woefully miscast Martin Clunes) acted as a lovely showreel for Marc Wooton as Mr. Poppy and not much else.

I thought that would and should be the end of the franchise.

However, in 2018 we got 'Nativity Rocks!', which acts as a soft reboot of the franchise, I'm sure with the intention of there being more.

Gordon Shakespeare (who looked out of place in the 3rd film anyway) is retired, but sadly so is the original Mr. Poppy. In typical franchise style, we get a new one... a brother (played by Simon Lipkin)...with exactly the same name and personality...

It's Lipkin's show from start to finish, with Helen George (of 'Call the Midwife' fame) being very much out of her depth with this sort of comedy, and a very forgetable new actor playing the 'St Bernadette's' teacher), not that he's given much to do at all.

It is a soft reboot, so we get a repeat of the performance in the cathedral/nativity focusing on Herod elements from the first film, but oddly with a rock opera spin, that I don't think anyone really wanted/asked for.

It's not a complete disaster like the 3rd (save Wotton's performance), with some nice elements about refugees and finding your own family, but ultimately this is a franchise by this point that has run its course.

4 December 2018 First Film of Choice at The Plaza Dorchester Tonight - Nativity Rocks. This is outing number four in the Nativity genre and in this instalment we are introduced to Mr Poppy's brother, Mr Poppy! This time round the city of Coventry is competing to be the city of Christmas by staging a rock opera which is to be directed by Emmanuel Cavendish, played by Craig Revel Horwood, who is overacting his socks off. Stick to the stage darling it's much more your scene. Introduce a large collection of small children singing and dancing, combine it with a group of adults who really shouldn't be in charge of the small children, and you find that slapstick and nonsense abound making this film weaker than its previous instalments. However even though the scenes are all a little tired it is good to have a family film at Christmas that doesn't take too much effort to watch, I'm sure the children will love it. Bring back Mr Poppy, because Mr Poppy really doesn't cut it. I think it may be time to put this particular baby back in its manger.

Pretty painful to watch but I can imagine it appealing to some children as pure pantomime. The acting is generally terrible and the story is quite preposterous.

If you have nothing else to watch and don't need to dedicate more than a few brain cells to this then it's OK but otherwise you'll never feel like you've missed out on not seeing this.

Refugees from Syria; father and son, find sanctuary in the UK's midlands but get separated on the way.

All the elements are here for an uplifting family comedy. There is a great gang of kids, enthusiasm and some good gags. I can forgive the comedy farce elements that were over played for my taste. But the story is too complicated for the time given to it; the threads have been cut to pieces leaving it all in a midland muddle.

The brutal story editing makes sense when we get to the final act to which a lot of the movie time is devoted. We're given a long concert of songs staged in Coventry cathedral. It's really well done and does somewhat redeem the film. Sadly by then the movie had already lost the attention of most of the children in the audience who were fidgeting with boredom.

I liked the references to Coventry's own devastation to bombing in 1939 that made a connection with the young refugee.