Le renne des neiges

I don't like Santa Claus movies in general, but this one was a winner. Hilarie Burton was particularly appealing and sympathetic as the feisty no nonsense Annie who is eventually won over by the shy, fish-out-of- water stable-master, John. Jayne Eastwood as Mrs. Claus, was a hoot. Clearly the brains of the operation, She was the ruthless mob boss, willing to send her minions to steal a little girl's pet reindeer so millions of little children aren't disappointed on Christmas morning. Yes kids, sometimes the end does justify the means. Lots of laughs, a poor single mother trying to save her farm from evil big business, a sweet little romance. and some charming fantasy. Overlook the forced conflict between the two lovebirds, and the questionable ethical issues, and you'll have a good time with this one.

Hallmark has sold out. Apparently mean spiritedness has made its way to Mrs Clause in this cultural cliche which includes an otherwise well intentioned cast. ( they could've cut out her storyline all together and it would've been your typical sweet holiday hallmark love story) Mrs. Santa Claus suggests that her stableman "do anything" to replace one of the ailing reindeer which leads to stealing a reindeer from a girl and her single mom. I turned it off after the kidnapping figuring that the best possible is that Mrs. Clause apologizes for her very bad behavior in the end. Personally, I can get that plot line every night on the evening news! I think I'll sit out this season.

Right, well needless to say that I had never heard about the 2015 movie "Last Chance for Christmas", from writers Mike Bell and Gary Yates, with the latter also directing the movie. Still, I opted to sit down and watch the movie, as part of this years Christmas movie marathon throughout the month of December.

I have to say that I essentially just figured that I would be in for a standard generic sappy Christmas movie, as I sat down to watch "Last Chance for Christmas", given the movie's cover. Yeah, I know, you can't judge a book (or a movie) by it's cover, but it just seemed like an archetypical sappy Christmas movie, but still, I opted to give the movie a fair chance.

The writers actually put together a fair enough script, as it proved to be entertaining, although somewhat generic and predictable, for sure. But I was actually fairly entertained throughout the course of the 87 minutes that the movie ran for, and isn't that the sole purpose of watching a movie?

The only performer on the cast list that I was familiar with was Tim Matheson. Regardless, I will say that the acting performances in the movie were fair.

Watchable, for certain, however I think diehard fans of the sappy Christmas movies will enjoy "Last Chance for Christmas" far more than I did.

My rating of director Gary Yates's 2015 movie "Last Chance for Christmas" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Mrs Claus thinks it is okay to steal a pet reindeer? That is not the idea of Mrs Claus I grew up with. She is a conniving thief as bad as Mr Buckley in the movie. Stealing is stealing no matter if it is for saving Christmas.

Prancer is in need of some hoof repair. When Santa's stable hand, John Stockman, informs him that there is a crack in Prancer's hoof, Santa is immediately alarmed since that means that he won't be able to fly. Not delivering the toys in time for Christmas is not an option, so Santa insists that John find a replacement. Things are looking up for John when he comes across Frankie, a beautiful reindeer that belongs to a charming 8-year-old girl. Now, John just has to convince the little girl's mother, Annie, to allow him to use Frankie as a sub. Convincing Annie to allow him to take Frankie up to the North Pole is not as easy as he thinks.

Not the Best Christmas film you will see but not the worse. Small children might enjoy this. The film isn't boring. The cast is enjoyable. I would not go out of my way to see it again but I wouldn't ever ruling out watching it again.