Watched: 12/06/2025
Format: Peacock
Viewing: First
Director: Tommy Wirkola
LOL. Oh my.
Really enjoyed this more than I should have, but I also really liked Deadly Games/3615 code Père Noël. And after so many Hallmark movies, it's honestly kind of nice to spice things up a bit.
I guess the plot summary is: An insanely rich family with government ties is taken hostage by a group of well-armed thieves. Santa Claus happens to be in the house at the moment and gets involved, remembering how he was once a viking berserker with a war hammer named "Skullcrusher". Things get intensely violent.
It's a knowing mish-mash of holiday favorites, from Die Hard to Home Alone, of having to fight back on the quietest night of the year.
David Harbour plays ol' Kris Kringle as a miserable drunk, who bemoans - as one does in modern movies - the lack of meaning in Christmas and lack of belief in Santa. John Leguizamo plays "Scrooge", the Hans Gruber of this bunch of international thieves. Beverly D'Angelo - who looks great, btw - plays the cut-throat matriarch of the family. Edi Patterson plays her alcoholic daughter with an obnoxious influencer son and a himbo actor boyfriend.
The focal family with the young girl with belief in Santa is played by people I've never seen before, Alexis Louder and Alex Hassell, plus Leah Brady as Trudy.
I guess I just loved how they manhandled some aspects of how holiday movies work - like the power of belief, of Christmas magic solving problems, how Home Alone works, and Santa's usual bag of tricks.
Anyway, it was a lot of Rated-R fun, and I was cackling. A really good palate cleanser if things got a little too sweet for you in your holiday movie watching.




















