À la recherche de Noël

Yep, as I started to watch I immediately thought I was watching a rip off of Groundhog Day. I like Steven Weber and Molly Shannon so I figured I'd stick with it. I'm glad I did. Yes, the story is similar to Groundhog Day with a twist of A Christmas Carol but it was entertaining and the acting was great. Good fliick, I'll watch it again.

12 Days of Christmas Eve - think "Scrooge" meets "Groundhog Day".

This Christmas special is nothing special. Steven Weber plays Calvin Carter, a wealthy businessman who took a failing family store and turned it into a thriving national chain. Of course, along the way, he left a lonely son, a bitter younger brother, an angry ex-wife and various other casualties.

After living "the best Christmas Eve" of his life, Calvin finds himself waking again that same morning with 12 chances to "get it right."

What follows is cute, but completely predictable.

I give it 6/10 - for having its heart in the right place.

This movie tells the story of Calvin Carter (Steven Weber), a successful businessman owner of some shopping stores in America, that has to solve a deep question of his life (is he really successful?), he dies and wake up in this search for answers, but he has only 12 days to do it following the rules told by a Magical Nurse called Angie (Molly Shanon).

This movie is entertaining and gives you a good lesson for life, great to see with family and learn somethings about ethics and family values.

The main aspect that takes away 5 stars to this movie is its lack of originality, it seems as a combination of Groundhog Day (1993 with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell), The Family Man (2004 with Nicolas Cage and Tea Leoni) and A Christmas Carol, the Charles Dickens Story of the three ghosts represented in the movie Scrooge (1951 with Alastair Sim), Scrooged (1988 with Bill Murray) and in Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983 Disney with Mickey Mouse), among others film resemblances.

An entertaining movie to see with family and spend a good time!, and learn something really useful for life; but nothing original.

Yes, this movie is similar to Groundhog Day, Family Man, and A Christmas Carol.... BUT it still carves out it's own place at the table.

If you like Christmas movies, and if you go into this understanding it was made for TV - you'll be VERY pleasantly surprised and pleased with this comedy. It's not Oscar material, it's not deep, it won't make you cry (thank goodness), but it will give you some laughs and it's a fun holiday film.

There are many many similar films..... most are dull or okay (Christmas Do-Over with Jay Mohr is markedly similar in plot to this tale, but not nearly as entertaining).

Molly Shannon as the angel is absolutely fabulous! Steve Webber does a great job tying comedy and humanity together, creating a sympathetic and believable (for a holiday TV movie) character.

While the plot is familiar in its similarities to other films, and consequently extremely predictable - the humor and contemporary setting make this a great "sitcom" style film.

It wouldn't be a Christmas movie without a moral and the lesson here was deeper and more provocative than expected. He wasn't able to buy, give, volunteer, or simply donate his way out of the mess - it was more and I especially appreciated that.

If you want a fun family Christmas movie with some light laughs, check this out!

No one would dare to try to remake the 1993 classic film, "Groundhog Day." But it was only a matter of time before someone thought to use the same idea in a completely different way. That's what the makers of "The 12 Days of Christmas Eve" have done. Calvin Carter gets 12 Christmas Eves over to determine if he will wake up on Christmas day or not.

The plot is fair, if a little far-fetched. Carter hosts a Brazilian company representative to see if his company will break into Latin America. As in the inspirational movie, he gets the day to live over and over as he tries to make it his best Christmas Eve ever. The comedy isn't on the level of the "Groundhog Day" and some of it is corny. Nor is the cast on the level of the earlier film.

But there's enough humor, and a good enough script with actors who do a decent job. So, this Christmas movie isn't humbug at all, but enjoyable light fare. The whole family should enjoy it.