Sorry, this movie sucks

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Blistering performances.

Reasonable enough film and OK for £1 from Poundland.It is dubbed from German but well enough that it is not an issue.The story is one for children and seen 100 times before. Villains want to catch Santa and steal Christmas back and stop the elves from making the presents.A few of the children in the film are not particularly likable, I was not sure if they were a boy or girl, but very clichéd. The boy's dad was a little odd too and the two main children were about 10 going on 17. The nutcrackers were the most peculiar characters I have seen in a while. But all in all it was entertaining enough. Santa's caravan was magical and beautifully portrayed as were the two elves and Yuleland.4/10

BEWARE OF BOGUS REVIEWS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY REVIEW ONE FILM. WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THAT PRODUCTION. NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 200 Christmas MOVIES. I HAVE NO AGENDA. I AM FARE ABOUT THESE FILMS. This is a German film dubbed into English. With two weeks left until Christmas, the last thing Ben and Charlotte expected is for Santa to crash-land his sleigh in their town! Santa has just escaped the villainous Gerold Geronimous Goblynch, recently named the new head of the Great Christmas Council. Goblynch's wicked ways have broken Christmas Land s joyous spirit, and he's threatened to turn Santa to ice and banish him from Christmas Land forever!This films prime audience will be small children. Adults will be bored most of the time however if you like Christmas films then give this film a chance. If your young at heart you will like this. The film does entertain.

"Als der Weihnachtsmann vom Himmel fiel" or "When Santa Fell to Earth" is a German German-language movie from 2011, so this one is already over five years old. Of course, the title already implies that these 105 minutes are something for the holidays. It is possibly the most known work by director Oliver Dieckmann. The novel this is based on is by Cornelia Funke and she has actually more known works under her belt, such as the Inkheart film or the "Wilde Hühner" movies. Her stuff got adapted several times. But back to this one here. The cast includes a handful decent actors such as Jessica Schwarz, Charly Hübner or Fritz Karl, but sadly these do not have the screen time or material to really make a difference. The child actors, however, do, but sadly they are just mediocre at best. And same goes for Alexander Scheer who plays the most beardless and youngest version of Santa Claus you have ever seen. Of course, they tried to justify it throughout the entire movie, but hands down the villain character (played nicely by Volker Lechtenbrink) was correct when he asks the kids if they have ever seen a Santa like that. No we have not. And we don't want to. This attempt to really make a difference and make the film attractive to younger audiences who may have seen and like Scheer in other projects did really backfire. I may be a bit biased here as I also don't see much range in Scheer, but he was just totally miscast. He could have played an elf, but that's it.Anyway, as for the story, it had an okay moment here and there, but for a film that is as close to two hours as it is to 90 minutes, it just wasn't convincing enough and there were several segments when I felt it dragged quite a bit. Christmas films are always about movie magic and I did not have a single magic moment while watching unfortunately. And they are also a lot about the music, but other than one or two occasions when we hear the melody of known Christmas songs, it also comes very short to that regard. The soundtrack adds more cringe than quality and the songs just weren't working at all for me. Overall, the result is disappointing. I do believe that the story and also the cast they got offered room for and the possibility of a quality movie that could be a really good watch for the holidays. But they disappointed so much. And this is especially baffling as so many people worked on the script, but not only did they apparently not recognize each other's mistakes, but maybe they all brought the worst of it inside this film. Major thumbs-down from me. This is not a film that will get you in the spirit. Watch something else instead.

This film offers an interesting twist on the "villains out to stop Christmas" theme that seems to be so prevalent these days. Here, the villains are a group of seedy corporate executive types posing as the Commission on Christmas in Juland, where they have banned all the real Santas from working with elves, angels or reindeer and from granting children's Christmas wishes. Their motivation? To make sure that all the Christmas presents have to be bought by parents from commercial enterprises. In other words, the villain is the commercialization of Christmas. Unfortunately, where the film falls short is that it doesn't really bring in anything about the real spirit of Christmas... I'm not talking about religious themes, but about the spirit of giving or about closeness with family and loved ones, kindness to strangers, all that heartwarming stuff that really makes a Christmas movie Christmassy (IMO). On the bright side, it was visually very Christmassy. Lots of beautiful, snowy mountain scenery, and it was great to see the quaint German village all decked out for Christmas, cobblestone streets and all. And I really loved Santa's little wooden gypsy caravan and his variety of Santa outfits. The very realistic reindeer poop from the invisible reindeer was a bit unnecessary. All in all, it was a fun romp with themes of triumph over bullying on several levels. A little too action-oriented for my tastes, but I think kids will really enjoy it. And I enjoyed it enough to see it again sometime, but not too soon. The acting ability of the dubbers was not great. I would have preferred to have seen it with the original soundtrack and subtitles, but since it's geared toward kids, I can understand why they didn't do that. Definitely a fun Christmas romp for the kids and anyone who likes snow and all the trappings that go with Chistmas.