This year’s first Christmas film on the big screen is a comedic actioner starring David Harbour as Santa. He is jaded because of the modern kids’ obsession with material things and their general ungratefulness, so he is going about his Christmas Eve activities reluctantly. When he arrives at a millionaire family’s house, he interrupts a group of mercenaries, lead by John Leguizamo’s Scrooge, robbing it. With the help of young Trudy (Leah Brady) and using his long dormant warrior skills, he takes out the bad guys, one-by-one.
This is extremely violent and gory stuff. Harbour is a hoot as the disillusioned big guy, and some of the kills are pretty imaginative. It is also funny at times in a deadpan way.
There are a couple of times in the middle of the film that the action flags a little in the search for pathos, but those moments do not really work. Though I did appreciate how Christmas spirit eventually saves Santa in the same way as the modern Christmas classic, Elf. An homage to Home Alone, with much more bloody and deadly booby traps set by Trudy, also works really well.
This could well take its place amongst the perennial Christmas must-sees.
Rating: 8 out of 10