Subpar animated adaptation that does correct Dicken's monumental mis-step in his version of the story and helps elevate it to a true classic. They give Scrooge a dog. A goofy cartoon dog. Yep, that fixed it.
Tim Curry is less Tim Curry-ish than usual and its nice to see perennial Santa Clause Ed Asner get to stretch out as Jacob Marley's ghost.
Totally inessential, but my kids didn't mind it back in the day.
I had mixed emotions going in to Juleblod. On one hand I dislike Christmas themed horror (as opposed to seasonal ghost stories, which I love) - I can’t think of one I d want to watch at Christmas time (though I haven’t seen Krampus or Anna and the Apocalypse yet) on the other hand I’m a big fan of Nordic horror and I enjoyed director Reinhardt Kiil’s earlier Nazi occult film The House. Unfortunately Juleblod turns out to be a Christmasized Halloween sequel spec script that somehow actually got made.
A failure as a spooky Christmas tale and a failure as a slasher flick.
There’s the germ of a good idea here - lonely rich guy tries to buy a Norman Rockwell Christmas at the local rental center, staffed by a struggling single mom, naturally. As I suffered through this no budget exercise in amateur theatrics, I couldn’t help but imagine what could have been, how easy it would have been to make a half decent movie from the concept.
No offense to the folks that made The Borrowed Christmas, I'm sure they're lovely people, but I found it pretty much unwatchable.
From the director of Prom Night, and the stars of Species and Loch Ness Terror, comes this bizarre Yuletide take on Freaky Friday. A small time hood is offered a million bucks to body swap with a dying department store Santa. If that sounds intriguing to you then be forewarned, it’s not good. (I’d originally typed "it stinks" but realized I had actually watched the whole thing through to the bitter end, and while I wasn’t the least bit invested in story, it's weirdness at did keep me wondering what was going to happen next.).
****
Naught and Nice: Closest thing to nice is the mediocre musical cartoon A Christmas Carol.
