Noël en cavale

Get Santa is a mess. However, despite some questionable character decisions (GO SEE YOUR PAROLE OFFICER!) and the fantasy elements being a bit boring, it's a sincere and often really fun mess. Funny, bright, well-directed and comfortably familiar, it fits in nicely with fantasy-meets-reality family Christmas films like Elf and Santa Clause. Nothing transcendent, but certainly a worthy addition to the holiday canon.

Father Christmas has lost control of his new sleigh on its first test drive. Santa, the reindeer and the sleigh are scattered all over London with only two days to Christmas. Tom, whose father has just got out of prison, finds Santa in the shed at the bottom of his garden.

Chris Broadbent is superb as Santa. The rest of the cast does a good job. Though while she's Dr Who I keep expecting Jody Whitaker to whip out her sonic screwdriver. The production is pretty good while scenery and CGI are variable; Elf City is great but the flying sequences are so-so.

It works as a comedy, a gentle adventure and as an uplifting Christmas story. It is child safe but just for your information: in Europe The North Pole and Lapland are interchangeable as Santa's home. Also the northern lights are definitely something to do with Santa.

I like: The way that Christmas letters are redirected to wherever Santa is. The way the rendeer communicate. The squirrel.

Before we start our regularly schedule review, lets crate context.

In the early days of Hollywood, x-mas movies were an oddity. They were in the process of finding themselves. Films like Miracle on 34th Street 1946 and Its a Wonderful Life 1947 (offically an X-mas tale because the story takes place around X-mas) were the exception, not the rule.

Flash forward about 55 years or so and now you find that some countries (like Canada) have actually formed a cottage industry just turning out X-mas movies year after year, good story or bad, entertaining or not, just to feed the "maw" of the system. (Canada has even stooped so low as to remake a B--- version of Miracle on 34th Street 1946 ... apparently spurred on the US' horrific remake of the same film in 1994).

So, therein likes the issue. When X-mas movies become commoditized, it becomes a real challenge that break away from the homogeneous sludge that passes for holiday movies these days.

(Elf 2003 pulled it off -- wonderful and recommended).

This film is not going to win any awards, but it holds the attention and has some really marvellous comedy bits buried here and there. (The "Crazy Jimmy Claus routine is worth the whole movie.) Recommended.

I only watched this film today, after reading some other posts and reviews on here I was a little apprehensive of whether this film would be any good. I've read some people's thoughts on how this film is better suited and better liked by people who understand dry humour and British comedy and they are absolutely right. This film is British through and through, funded by the BFI and starring an all British cast. As someone who is British, I can tell you if you understand that sort of dry and often off colour humour you will love this film like I did.

If you're American or are used to that sort of conventional sugary sweet Hollywood style Christmas film then this film will probably be harder to understand. While it does conform to the traditional narrative and plot points many Hollywood Christmas films do (Christmas isn't coming this year, a broken family saves Christmas and ultimately their own issues and relationships - the film after all is made by Warner Brothers and so the film does still hold some of that conventional Hollywood magic) its uniqueness is found in it's darker and often off colour humour that is iconically British. The film not only showcases a perfect blend of Hollywood and British humour with the help of Warner Bros and BFI but the film also has a brilliant cast with some fantastic British actors. I couldn't help but smile when I saw many actors I recognise from other British TV shows or films. Not only Jim Broadbent but Warwick Davis and Matt King who I know better as Super Hans in the very original and hilariously British sitcom Peep Show. Like it or not this film is certainly worth watching at this festive time of year. Now, it's certainly one I think I will watch every year at Christmas. 🙂🎅🎄

This dry, wry, sometimes snarky Christmas tale touches buttons from the ridiculous to the very human, neatly and surely.

Several standard American holiday tropes - Santa getting lost before the holiday, kids asking for their parents back, elves who need humans to save the day - are turned on their heads in inimitable Brit-film style. Jim Broadbent does Santa very well. There's a 'Bad Santa' element, Keystone-esque cops and prison guards, and some hilarious farting reindeer.

The simple human story of father and son bonding, of dad and step-dad and mom making peace with each other, is strong enough to be convincing. And heart-warming.