User reviews

I don't know why I would have expected anything different.

The first thought I had as I began watching, noting the excruciating heavy-handed gaucheness on display, was to wonder if this was a film from The Asylum. There is no effort to attain the slightest measure of authenticity. "Newspaper clippings" are obviously Microsoft Word documents printed on standard 8.5" by 11" paper. Performances are either direly over the top, with much chewing of scenery - or utterly bored and disinterested, clearly not at all invested in the schlock that is providing the actors' paychecks. There is no middle ground. There is no subtlety to be found at any point, least of all as the screenplay makes astounding leaps across a veritable multiverse of hodgepodge plot ideas that make no sense. If there are connective threads between scenes, characters, or story beats, then they are invisible and intangible.

Then I noted the utterly terrible production values with lighting and image quality so glaring as to nearly be painful to the eyes. And with that, the second thought I had as I began watching was that this is clearly too low-budget, too poorly conceived, and too thoughtlessly rendered to be an Asylum feature. I take one glance at the other pictures with which "Justice for All Productions" has been involved, and I recognize garbage so foul that cockroaches would abstain, and other titles with a premise so plainly dubious that I'm given no reason to think they're any less rotten. Dialogue is tortuous to behold as a viewer, and characters are as thin as split hairs and strain credulity beyond all comprehension. Scene writing and the overall narrative are abhorrent - disjointed, nonsensical, written and executed with no care or mindfulness at all, and obliterating suspension of disbelief. Direction, editing, effects, camerawork, music - nothing here is spared from what may well be the very worst storytelling and film-making I've ever seen.

I wish I could say I were exaggerating. But the third thought I had as I began watching was that the "miracle" we actually need is for this film to be erased from existence - to have never been in the first place. It is wholly putrid, bereft of worth or value. It's the sort of production that makes Eric Roberts seem like a paragon of acting expertise compared to his co-stars, or even compared to the apparent equivalent skill level of the crew, the writers, or the director. It's the sort of production that makes one wish all contributors would be blacklisted and genuinely forbidden from ever having a hand in cinema ever again.

And I had all these thoughts within only the first 10 minutes. It only ever got worse.

To call 'A karate Christmas miracle' an abomination is probably a disservice to other miscellanea that may share the word or its derivatives in their name (e.g. 'The abominable Dr. Phibes,' "the Abominable Snowman," or Bill Nighy's delivery of the word "abomination" in the 2003 action-horror film 'Underworld'). I can think of no pejoratives with which to describe this title that wouldn't in the same breath, by association, insult something else described with the same word. I've seen too many movies that quickly impressed as below the bottom of the barrel of cinematic putrescence, and still this somehow manages to dig deeper still. There is no reason to watch this - there never has been, and there never will be.

Anyone who makes the unfortunate mistake of watching 'A karate Christmas miracle' should be generously compensated for the arduous labor of the experience. The fact that such a transaction will never happen certainly cements the fact that this should never be viewed by anyone.

I genuinely would have given this movie zero stars if i could. The acting was horrid. The fight scenes were like kindergartners fighting over a toy. VERY UNBELIEVABLE. How could you spend 1.5 million and still end up with this trash. ABSOLUTELY WOULD NOT RECOMMEND.

So I found this mess on Tubi, and I like watching terrible movies from time to time to sharpen my ability to judge better films. My thought process, if you know what the least talented people put on video, then you will have a much better appreciation for what the true professionals can do.

There is utterly nothing professional about this visual abomination.

I usually don't roast the people making the films because they actually have the guts to put something out, but Kenneth Del Vecchio is clearly devoid of talent, capability and sensibility. Gonna take a shot in the dark and say his problematic political leanings plays a role in the farcical nonsense that is his filmography.

Where can we begin? It's like this movie was put together from multiple projects that absolutely fell apart. Not wanting to waste money, he put this nonsense together and passed it off as a movie. I mean, the narrative continuity of Bob Genesis (whew, what a name) is ridiculous. What makes this even more unsettling is Del Vecchio went all "Will Smith" on us and tried to make this movie as some kind of vehicle for his kid. The results are pretty awful as expected. And what the heck is up with this storyline about psychics?

This is just a mess. Make sure your furniture is bolted down because you might knock it over. Plus I'm no martial arts expert, but it looks like the kid is learning jiu jitsu, not karate. Just saying.

This is so bad it's funny. This was made as a joke, right? Couldn't they even get someone who knew what karate was?

I don't understand how something like this can even get made. I also don't know what is more insulting, the cinematography, the transitions, the conclusion, or just the disgusting use of a tragedy for name drops in a movie.

I loved it. The majority of all movies are bad. This is truly the bottom of the barrel.

It looks like a low budget Christian film that has been reedited with weird effects for a YouTube video. I honestly cannot believe the effects were supposed to look good. I would wager that the editors knew exactly what they were doing... Maybe.

Every aspect of this movie is garbage. From the opening hobby drone shot that was considerably shaky and grainy from low light, to random cuts to very similar shots, to characters that make you want to punch a wall. (In lieu of their face.)

Bad movies are fun to laugh at, this movie is hilarious.

My new favorite Christmas movie, and a soon to be tradition of watching every year.

Horrendous acting. Looks like it was filmed by a 10 year old on an iphone 5. Storyline makes absolutely no sense, and there is so much random stuff going on all at once. Special effects are horrible. Dumb ending. Audio is weird at some points. Very stupid. If you wanna watch a horrible christmas movie, you've found one.

If the budget for this was any more than the cost of SD cards for the (terrible quality) camcorders this was shot on, they wasted every penny of it. What a steaming turd.

Mostly a boring Hallmark-tier movie but what keeps it somewhat entertaining are the weird Lynchian scenes that involve how the main character's dad disappeared a year ago after a mass shooting in a movie theater committed by a guy in a clown outfit. These appear in psychic visions that portray the mastermind monologuing about how no one truly understands his grand vision, played by Eric Roberts of all people. These surreal moments come out of nowhere and are barely explained, so they're at least good for waking you up from how much of a snoozefest the rest of this film is. Every one in this can't act to save their lives , especially the main kid who might just have to worst "trying to fake a nightmare" acting I've ever seen.

If you're looking to be entertained by a "so bad it's good" movie this Christmas, you'll end up sadly disappointed in A Karate Christmas Miracle as anything that might remotely be entertaining about this premise is wasted on going through tropes that were already played out on Lifetime 10 years ago. Avoid unless you like torturing yourself.

This is not a movie.

It's pure insanity, worthy of any group get-together. No one would believe you if you watched this by yourself. If you tried, it would sound MAYBE something like this:

This is seven, maybe seven "movies" put together through a fax machine, that set the fax machine on fire, and THEN, after whomever doused it with as much kerosene & jet fuel as possible to TRY and put it out... that nameless person (or people) thought to themselves, "... ya, this can work."

You want a good laugh? You want to lose your mind in the process? AND you want some Christmas flair added to it, that truly has nothing to do with anything?

Well say no more!

And even AFTER explaining all of that - you blink, then immediately realizing you have no friends (possibly because they all left in the process and/or didn't want to have an aneurism in front of you) and you lost your shoes. Don't ask. You did this to yourself.

Jesse's father disappeared on Christmas the previous year and they've heard nothing from him. He might be dead, he might have run away or he might have just realized what a bad movie it is and ran off. But young Jesse (Mario Del Vecchio) is having weird dreams about Eric Roberts and some evil clown having kidnapped the man and are holding him prisoner. And, in order to magically get his release, Jesse is convinced he must progress from a yellow belt in martial arts to a black belt in a week. First, HOW would this release the father??? Secondly, the yellow belt is among the lowest ranks and even Chuck Norris or Bruce Lee at their prime couldn't have progressed through a half dozen or so belts this quickly! Jesse apparently is teaching himself karate...and is giving himself these belts as he thinks he's attained them. In other words, Jesse is delusional and seems to be cheating just a bit.

At the same time, Jesse's workaholic mother wants to desperately find her husband...so much so that he pursues a psychic and begs her to help, even though the lady has retired from the craft. Oddly, almost as soon as the psychic agrees to help, the mother begs her to drop the case and go her way. I do not understand ANY of this, but it makes about as much sense as Jesse becoming a black belt in less than a week.

So is any of this good? No. It's not a dislikable film but it is very, very badly written, makes no sense and has the lowest possible production values imaginable. There is nothing about the film that is good...which makes the couple overly glowing reviews seem very, very odd.

For having a 1,500,000 dollar budget this movie is trash don't waist your time.

I seen some bad ones over the years Christmas with a Capital C, Last Ounce of Courage and the ultimate classic Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas.

But this film is called A Karate Christmas Miracle from 2019. Its a film done by the same guy who did The Life Zone and Cries of the Unborn. Two films where he heros of the films kidnap woman and force them to birth.

A Karate Christmas Miracle "stars" Eric Roberts and Martin Cove. Well not really. Footage of them was taken from other films. Mainly Jokers Poltergeist (aka Jokers Wild). The film is about a young boy who does Karate named Jesse Genesis plans to get his father back (whether hes kidnapped or dead is debatable) by Christmas by doing 10 things on a list he has. His dad was murdered(?) by a guy in a clown mask at a movie theater called Aura Palace. Jessie's mom, Abby Genesis is in contact with Elizabeth who is a former psychic. Much of the film is Abby and Elizabeth talking back and forth about the missing or possibly murdered father. Also theres a side plot with Martin Cove giving the movie theater where the massacre took place to his daughter but somehow they say she earned it but it was a gift at the same time. Eric Roberts appears once in a while but its all footage from Jokers Poltergeist. Confused? I think everyone who made this film and watched this film got confused.

In short its a family film that involves a killer clown and the people giving over a missing father. Great family film huh? This film is a total mess. Its outrageously terribly made. However its a horribly fun time. If you want to be amazed at a bad Christmas film check this Christmas crap out.

I'm just here to rise the unfair score this movie got. It's not bad at all and the acting is good. The ending maybe might have been different, but it's OK.

I don't know what people want, they always complain for something, probably because their lives suck, so they try to feel important by giving bad scores to the movies. If you have problems, it's only your responsibility, don't blame the others for your failure.

Someone wrote: "So I found this mess on Tubi, and I like watching terrible movies from time to time to sharpen my ability to judge better films".

Guess what, you'll never be able to judge any kind of film, because you don't even know how to start doing that. Judge? Oh, come on, give a break! You don't even know what this word means. Stop watching movies, or you'll get blind. A lot of people don't have any kind of awareness and you are one of them.

This movie is recommended only for intelligent and aware people.

If you want a movie that will please the whole family, look no further than 'a karate christmas miracle'. The kids will enjoy the skillful martial arts performed by the talented child actor and the parents will enjoy the witty, realistic dialog.

Twists and turns lead down a path to family togetherness, unlikely friendship and faith in the power of the belting ceremony as it is practiced in Biblical stewardship.

Real mystery and an overall uplifting message will remind your precious family of the real diamonds and gold given to us by our creator and founders. Christmas is alive and well in Hoboken!

This movie has everything; mystery, suspense, drama, a little comedy in a well balanced proportion and acting which is more on par with cinematic, Oscar contender level films. I used to think of Miracle on 34th Street as the all time leading Christmas story but my new yearly tradition has changed. The holiday season will never again officially commence until a viewing of A Karate Christmas Miracle has occurred. It drives you into a frenzy of worry and anxiety and the next thing you know you are crying like a baby for the tragic events which have befallen our lead characters but that darn Jesse is quite the little whippersnapper and he knows what Christmas is all about and what is the secret to missing/presumed dead victim of theater mass violence is all about - Karate. Jesse finds his balance and attains his black belt goal through days of vigorous training against some of the most formidable opponents on the planet and once he is tough enough to finally make a father proud a true Christmas miracle takes place. Through the award caliber acting of the woman playing the teacher we are taken on a roller coaster ride of emotion and shown the inner workings of a mind which has suffered the loss of its purpose in life - fortune telling. This woman's emotional range left me speechless and thinking we will see this character again in a standalone film. The ending is one of the most draw-dropping and shocking reveals in recent cinematic history. It will unhinge you and break you down before finally wrapping you up in a security blanket cocoon of warmth and holiday cheer and contentment. Do yourself a favor and throw out your old holiday DVD's like Miracle, Christmas Vacation, Peanuts Christmas Special, Emmet Otter, etc. This is the only holiday film you and your family will ever need again to fill your stockings with Karate Christmas Love!!!

I saw this movie at the opening day at the Hoboken International Festival, and it was great. It contained Mystery, Suspense, and so much more. It is on Amazon Prime and it is free on an app called, "Tubi." I definitely recommend this movie

This movie is a stunning and moving drama , comedy and mysterious one of this film is. For everyone struggling with the death of a family member or friend in a mass shooting can take a small amount of faith of the twelve karate tasks that will bring their loved one back from the dead. I wont spoil the end, but lets just say that there is A Karate Christmas Miracle.

Amazon prime again delivers with a brilliant addition to the platform. I'm sure Netflix and other platforms will be turning out the cash for the chance to stream this one.

After a lot of crying at the end I had to leave this review, so that I can look back at the first time this movie broke my heart ..... (RIP MASS SHOOTING VICTIMS)