A Clüsterfünke Christmas

8/10 - absolutely hysterical spoof of your typical Hallmark Christmas movie fare features solid comedy writing, a sweet romance story, and fantastic performances (most of all Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's Vella Lovell)

Some people will watch this and they won't get it those people have never seen a hallmark Christmas film. I love hallmark movies for the awfulness they are so when I heard about this film I had to watch it. I loved how self aware the film is poking fun of hallmark from the ad placements, Canadian locations ( I'm Canadian who lives in Canada so it's even funnier to us), the over acting , plot devices. The film could of been maybe a little more silly but then maybe it would of been to stupid. All I know is I want to see more movies like this.

A Clusterfunke Christmas (2021) -

I put this film on with the intention of watching the first 15 minutes and then turning it off, because I had expected it to be awful.

And for those first 15 minutes I was right, because I had no idea at that point that it was a parody. It had been unclear, because some of the other 'Made For TV' films had actually been that bad, without deliberately trying. Parodies of themselves in some ways.

However, I felt that it was going somewhere, so I did actually stick with it.

If I hadn't realised then that it was a comedy I would definitely have given up after Holly, played by Vella Lovell, turned up at the inn.

Holly was a vile character and I never actually warmed to her. I felt sorry for anyone that she might have ended up with. So it was fortunate that Cheyenne Jackson, in the role of Frank, was not exactly the nicest character either, although he was sexy. A bit daft and aggressive, certainly to Holly, but definitely nice to look at.

Once I realised what they were trying to achieve, I actually quite liked a lot of the references, because I've often wondered why no one pays for coffee and so on and the traditional Hallmark, Etc films have consistently been so formulaic that they were easy to ridicule.

It was actually quite laugh out loud funny at some points, because as a self confessed connoisseur of Christmas films, it was easy for me to recognise everything that they were taking the mick out of, but I felt that they had really missed an opportunity to go huge with the jokes, with so many other films to replicate and aspects that were crying out for ridicule from so many of the stories they were sending up.

But I did enjoy it and I would definitely look for it again next year.

6.5/10.

It's an MTV spoof on the formulaic and sometimes sickly sweet holiday films. This is actually better written than many of the holiday films and the acting is good. Imagine a town where coffee isn't available only hot cocoa, that' the fictional Yuletide, Maine.

There are a lot of double entendres, like the game they call cornholing between Cheyenne Jackson's character and Ryan McPartlin's character that involves tossing fruitcakes at a hole like a bean bag toss. I'd like to see more parody holiday films, hope there are more next year.

Hope the cast had as much fun making it as I had watching it.

It's a spoof of the hallmark Christmas movies, but that's what makes it work. All the cliches and characters poked fun at, plenty of jokes. For all the different cheap movies made for Christmas this is definitely one of the more entertaining. Worth the watch if looking for a laugh and like the rom com hallmark movies.