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Hola amigos, buenas vibras para todos.
**Hello friends, good vibes to all.
Looking for Christmas movies that are really worthwhile can seem like an extremely complicated job because most of them fall into the same old clichés and end up being just another one of those totally irrelevant productions that are forgotten after a short time. I confess that this film did not catch my attention because I was afraid of what I said before but it turned out to be one of those diamonds hidden in a huge cave, the cave being the absurd amount of Christmas movies that are on all the platforms nowadays. Christmas Eve, presents, the spirit of Christmas, family, a robbery, blood all over the place and a silly and ridiculous comedy don't seem like ingredients that would work together but friends, they do fit and very well to my surprise.
The premise or story is very simple. We start with a Santa Claus (David Harbour) who is doing what he is supposed to do on Christmas Eve, deliver presents. The thing is that this Santa is very different from what you may know of him, is one that although he likes what he does he has a very big disagreement on his back because he believes that over time children are much more materialistic and value less the true meaning of Christmas, hence his work is done with reluctance and is a bit quite grumpy. It turns out that at some point in the night he arrives at a rather ostentatious house to finish his work, what he does not know is that his stay would be longer than expected.
But why? - Well, without giving too much information, the detail is that the mansion is being assaulted by an elite team. It would have been easier for Santa to leave the house but something happens to stop him that clearly I won't tell you and that forces him to try to help the family that is being held hostage. From here is when it all begins and the film becomes one of the Christmas films that I have enjoyed the most thanks to the high doses of excessive action, melee fights, beatings, shootings, explosions, fires and a long etcetera more. There are cult movies related to Christmas, right? - Die Hard and Home Alone, well, the point is that in a very fresh and surprising way this film takes things from those classics and incorporates them into the plot so that it is, without being a cheap copy, something incredibly entertaining to watch.
But not everything is action, there is also an absurd comedy that comes from characters that are not serious at all, they are the typical fools that usually have aspects in their personality that make them the way they are and that can easily fall into the ridiculous. The story is a bit like that, a black comedy where we see family problems, the son-in-law who is a fake, the brothers who hate each other and the mother who is colder than a tempane. And if we add to all this a team of thieves made up of professionals but with one or two incompetent ones, the final result can be unpredictable but never boring, I guarantee you will not get tired of this film.
And behind that action and comedy we come to the last layer, the message. Yes, it may seem that this film is an empty product but the reality is that it is not. Santa Claus is moved by something, something that is being lost and that thanks to everything he manages to do, he somehow feels it again. Throughout the film we see small reflections about Christmas that give a sentimental touch on what is the true role of everyone and what should be the whole issue of, for example, giving a gift to a loved one. Those messages can't be missing in a story like this and it's fine, it's not cheesy or forced at all, it just softens a bit the incredible carnage that goes on throughout that night.
All the action scenes were ten, as I said the film can be a little explicit because there is excessive violence but I thought it was excellent, when that kind of content is well done it is very enjoyable and this is the case. There are deaths of all kinds, some very absurd that give a comic and senseless touch to everything which is appreciated, not everything always goes in the same direction and that is the unpredictability of this film. But none of this is possible without its characters, that's where the key to everything is.
David Harbour was impressive. He is a very tough character, with an armor that he himself put on thanks to a conformist society but that deep down he is a man with a big heart and that in spite of everything has very valuable feelings. A detail of him is that he hides a past, one that you will have to discover when you see the film that is what motivates him to do all the barbarities he does, it is as if someone else possessed him. The agility, the skill for the combats and the hardness of how he plays this Santa is something that David should be applauded, he is a very good actor, in everything I have seen him he has done wonderfully, we already know how epic his character in Stranger Things is.
The rest of the cast is made up of secondary characters, but in the end they all played their role. John Leguizamo is the leader of this group of thieves, the typical one who is annoyed with everything and everyone, he has a conflict with Christmas and that's where his resentment comes from. Decent, nothing more. The family is also a bit in the background, there are a couple of characters that are more relevant than others because they are like a common thread throughout this story and based on them is that we end up in this Christmas Eve meeting. Characters of all kinds and for all tastes, as well as the families themselves in real life.
I really enjoyed this movie, I was not expecting at all what I ended up seeing and it turned out to be a great film, super moving and entertaining and very worth seeing these days because of all the context in it. Action, comedy and a nice message is what you will see in this film of a little less than two hours. I give it an 8/10 because I would dare to say that, at least in my opinion, it became one of those cult movies that I can get to see again next year without any problem. I leave you the trailer so you can take a look at it and see more or less what it's about.
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Bueno mi gente por hoy es todo, espero que les haya gustado. ¡Un abrazo a todos, nos vemos en la próximo!
***Well my people that's all for today, I hope you liked it. ¡A hug to all, see you in the next one!