Father Christmas Is Back

We watched this. It was not uniformly terrible. There were some moments of levity. But it felt like a long series of comedy sketches in search of a punchline. There are moments of maudlin sincerity grafted into situations that have almost no connection to the emotional statement. The acting/characterization is completely two dimensional. The comedic actions arise because no one has ever thought to ask the next question. At least three of the families here are super rich to the point of owning estates and incredibly expensive cars, and yet they act like helpless children in the face of trivial adversities to the point that you begin to believe that the foolishness of the English elite of Downton Abbey is not a one-off but is part of being rich and English.

The opening credits with the garish lighting and cheesy smiling mugs of the lead cast should have been a tip off... This Christmas comedy is very campy and silly, but without actual great punchlines or clever/witty dialogue. Kids might like it more than adults. Production value also feels more like a TV movie than a movie-movie. If you make it all the way through, ending is kind of cute.

I thought the opening credits might have been a deliberate pastiche given the pedigree of many of the cast but I couldn't have been more wrong - what an absolutely dreadful ..... I hesitate to use the word film - my headline tag of "Dire" doesn't come anywhere close to describing just how bad this was - watched for 10 minutes- ffwded the remainder.

This film is funny in places, but in general it seems to try too hard to be funny. Some casting was great, some not so great. A film I will probably firget about but I wouldn't go as far as some that claim wasting their time.

Amazing Comedy on Paper OMG what a cast, this gotta be great... wrong... it was overacted, even for britisch standards... the humor was as old as Liz Hurleys Wonderbra... Short and simple this is a bad movie and only a few people will appreciate it.