Tommy 'Dead Snow' Wirkola's festive action-comedy is written by Sonic's Pat Casey and Josh Miller.
David Harbour - Santa Claus
John Leguizamo - Mr. Scrooge
Alex Hassell - Jason
Alexis Louder - Linda
Beverly D'Angelo - Gertrude
Leah Brady - Trudy
Summary
On Christmas Eve at a pub in Bristol, England, a drunken Santa Claus laments how children have lost their Christmas spirit.
Greenwich, Connecticut.
Jason Lightstone, estranged wife Linda and their young daughter Trudy travel to a countryside mansion owned by his mother Gertrude to celebrate the holidays.
Spot the National Lampoon connection?
Great.
While Santa is delivering presents at her estate, a group of mercenaries (led by Mr. Scrooge) take the family hostage.
They're after the $300m stored in the mansion's vault, which Gertrude stole from the Lightstone Company.
Baddies are on Santa's naughty list, and they better watch out.
Mid-credits
Bert is vlogging on his phone next to Commander Thorp's corpse.
Ho-ho-whole lot of fun
What very briefly begins as Bad Santa, escalates into Die Hard and eventually becomes Home Alone.
Does shit work?
Largely, yes.
Harbour and Leguizamo as John McClane and Hans Gruber have a blast as unlikely hero and primary villain respectively.
I'd also say Trudy is a makeshift Al Powell, as wee lass regularly communicates with Santa via 'magic' walkie talkie.
And towards the end, a twisted Kevin McCallister.
Slapstick violence features some pretty impressive gore and the standout sequence sees Santa cleave through henchmen with sparkling efficiency.
If I did have a criticism, Gertrude's Extraction Team (or Kill Squad) are all too predictably on Scrooge's payroll, a la Die Hard II.
Rather than eye, a baddie is stabbed in the neck with an icicle and snowmobile chase takes admiration for Renny Harlin's sequel too far.
Finally, just before Scrooge and Santa engage in a fight to the death, the former exclaims "Christmas dies tonight!"
Was a cringing ref to Halloween Kills really necessary?
NO.
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