Looking for more Christmas movies to watch on Netflix this holiday season after our previous roundup? Let us offer a little more assistance in the next installment of our roundup of this year’s Netflix Christmas offerings.
For those who somehow accidentally stumbled upon the premise of I Believe in Santa, then they’d probably think one of two things. It’s a fake film that doesn’t exist or it’s some horribly misguided blast from the past that would never in a million years get made today. But alas it’s a real film that actually came out this year on Netflix. The film follows Lisa (Christina Moore) who meets Tom (John Ducey) and sparks quickly begin to fly. But their relationship is put to the ultimate test when Lisa finds out that Tom (a grown man) still believes in Santa Claus. Yes, you read that correctly, this is a Christmas romcom about a woman dating a man who believes in Santa Claus and it’s just as strange as it sounds. With a premise like that, it very easily could’ve been a horror film and they wouldn’t have had to change all that much.
If I Believe in Santa took a more comedic or self-aware approach to its story, there was a possibility it could’ve made for a decent albeit cheesy Christmas romcom. But unfortunately, it plays it completely straight and because of that, it winds up being one of the most unintentionally creepy and hilarious films of the year. Every time Tom is giving a monologue about the meaning of Christmas and Santa, one can’t help but laugh due to how unbelievably silly and absurd it is. It’s hard to get behind a film when its premise is this ridiculous and the leads have absolutely no chemistry together. The acting is serviceable, and Ducey does the best he can with such a terribly written character, but there’s very little about this that works, and it also doesn’t help that Lisa isn’t always the most likeable. In the end, it is simply a really bad film but it’s also the entertaining type of bad film so at least it’s not boring.
Score: 35/100
For those who have seen any film where a working single mother/father from the city moves to a small town and struggles to adapt to their new life while starting a new romance or rekindling an old one while learning a few life lessons along the way, then they can probably guess just about every single direction Christmas on Mistletoe Farm will go. This is one of the blandest, cheesiest, and most uninteresting Christmas films in recent memory and its very clear Netflix didn’t put a lot of time or money into it. Despite the film taking place around Christmas and the frequent mentioning of the holiday, it barely even feels like a Christmas film. The snowless farmland scenery is very dull to look at and not that everything has to do it, but it just doesn’t have a whole ton of Christmas spirit or flavor.
While Christmas on Mistletoe Farm isn’t the worst film of the year or anything offensively bad, unless one really loves a certain type of Hallmark Christmas film, this one has absolutely nothing to offer. The only positive thing to say is that the child actors are all pretty good and make for a believable family. But outside of them, most of the acting is completely terrible and the characters will constantly get on viewers’ nerves especially one comic relief character who is given way too much screentime. Meanwhile, there’s also a last-minute reveal that was shocking in all the worst ways and makes absolutely no sense. That being said, it’s hard to hate on a film when its heart is clearly in the right place, but this one is a pretty boring watch that feels like hardly any effort was put into it. It also doesn’t help that it feels like it goes on forever despite a fairly average running time.
Score: 33/100
Those who have seen one version of A Christmas Carol have pretty much seen them all. Some are better than others and some offer refreshing changes to the story (this year’s Spirited or 1988’s Scrooged just to name a few), but most of them are exactly the same. Sadly Scrooge: A Christmas Carol fits snuggly into that category. There isn’t anything overly wrong with the film but there’s ultimately no reason for it to exist or for viewers to spend any of their time with it. The film follows the exact same story and structure as the countless other versions and makes very few changes.
That being said, the voice cast all do solid work most notably Luke Evans as Scrooge and the always lovely Jessie Buckley as Isabel Fezziwig but other than them, there really isn’t much about them that stands out in an overly good or bad way. The musical numbers are instantly forgettable, the story offers absolutely no surprises for those familiar with any of the countless other versions of the story, and the animation is pretty subpar especially for Netflix standards. Ultimately, it might work for younger viewers but most of the other versions are already family friendly enough so there’d be absolutely no reason for someone to choose this version over any of the other better ones. At the end of the day, this is by far the most watchable and most well made of the films covered in this roundup though that still isn’t saying that much.
Score: 50/100
*stills courtesy of Netflix*
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