À la poursuite de Noël

A peculiar film which had a decent premise and an interesting variation on a Christmas Carol but the acting primarily by the two main male characters was appalling and the Christmas Past character was absolutely unbearable. He seemed to run at walking pace yet put miles between those chasing him.

Workaholic Jack (Tom Arnold) has forbade any celebration of Christmas, prompting the Ghost of Christmas Past (Leslie Jordan) to intervene. However, when Past goes AWOL in the 1970's, Present (Andrea Roth) must intervene and team up with Jack before it's too late.

Chasing Christmas is an instant classic, and not your usual take on A Christmas Carol. It's funny, it's thoughtful and doesn't take itself too seriously. The meta-jokes and touching character moments make for a great watch for all the family (even adults!). Roth and Arnold have good chemistry and Leslie Jordan is a true scene stealer.

Despite this being released in 2005 (and me reviewing this in 2018), the story and its elements still hold up today, with its themes of time, forgiving, love and loss being forever-relevant and relatable.

OK, I like Tom Arnold and, except for the "Highway to Heaven" episode with Geoffrey Lewis, this is the funniest version you can imagine.

Arnold hate Christmas because his wife dumped him on Christmas Eve. He becomes the "Scrooge" we all love to hate. The Ghost of Christmas Past (Leslie Jordan) visits and decides that he wants to stay in the past. To the rescue is the Ghost of Christmas present (Andrea Roth). So most of the movie takes place in Arnold's past as Present tries to get him home before midnight.

Brittney Wilson was great as Arnold's daughter.

Of course, you all know how it ends.

I caught this movie on ABC Family and thought it was really funny. There have been so many versions of A Christmas Carol that it was nice to see them do something different with it. I really liked the way that Christmas was run by an office and the ghosts were like secret agents.

I talked to my grandparents, who also saw it, and they didn't like how it leaves the story of A Christmas Carol and goes off on its own story. But that's exactly why I liked it. So maybe it's not an old person movie. It certainly wasn't traditional.

It was nice to see Andrea Roth, who is on Rescue Me (which I am a big fan of) do something comedic. And the little guy who plays The Ghost of Christmas Past was good too.

And any movie that references Star Wars Holiday Special is fine by me.

Finally something different in the Christmas genre. This made-for-TV movie has Dickens' A Christmas Carol getting all shook up to give it bunch of different situations not in the original story. Tom Arnold is excellent in the "Scrooge" role. He, of course, is visited by three ghosts meant to show him how he has every reason to stop being a scrooge. But all does not go as planned and that's what makes this refreshing. Unfortunately a low budget hinders this kinda unique story. Bright green grass with foamy looking snow covering portions of the ground? Just terrible. Throw in more money and a more talented director and you really coulda had something much better here. Still it's refreshing. Even though it was made for the ABC Family Channel, it's not exactly charming nor is it really family-friendly unless the family consists of only adults! It's still PG but does contain adult themes. Barely any Christmas music in it so not very Christmasy. But it kept my interest especially compared to so many repetitive and formulaic takes on the classic tale.

6.4 / 10 stars

--Zoooma, a Kat Pirate Screener