Horace McNickle (Edward Asner) is a two-time felon serving prison time for counterfeiting. On the week before Christmas, he escapes from prison dressed as Santa Claus due to his uncanny resemblence to St. Nick resulting from his long white beard and heavyset features. McNickle hides out from the police in a nearby suburban neighborhood where he is befriended and helped by two local children who think he is the real Santa Claus. McNickle takes advantage of the kids naive ness to help him get his counterfeit money hidden somewhere in a local department store while he develops kind-hearted feelings for his two con victims that make him slowly understand the true nature of Christmas.
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The Worst Film Ever
How sad is this?
Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies
The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;
*Spoilers* First of all, this movie is...not good. It's the kind of movie that's only good if you enjoy watching bad movies to make fun of them. It absolutely does not make sense, even in movie terms. It is corny at best, and ridiculously stupid at worst.The movie follows a convict who escapes from prison by beating up a man from the Salvation Army and stealing his Santa suit. (Just puts you in the spirit doesn't it?) After we meet our lovable felon Horace, we meet Billy, John, and Trudy. Billy and Trudy are siblings. Billy is an extremely optimistic and gullible young boy, and Trudy is something like a clone of Cindy Brady that went horribly wrong. Their parents are recycled nice parents who love their kids but are stuck in poverty. John on the other hand, is a complete and utter jerk. John's father is an even bigger jerk who is a caricature of a modern day Scrooge, and is just short of emotionally abusive to his son. Not only that, but he plans on foreclosing on Billy's family and all the other tenants by the end of the year. Then of course there is John's (or is it Billy's?) dog Spider, a scruffy stray that didn't make the cut for the Annie movie.Anyway, after Horace escapes he becomes a... squatter I suppose, in the building the kids live in. Billy and Trudy find him and believe he is the real Santa, which he reinforces rather unconvincingly. Then he has the kids help him break into some special Santa throne that has a sack of money inside. No...really. Along with that, "Santa" bonds with John, relating to his cold and unfeeling relationship with his father. After Horace finally gets the money he ditches the kids and... has a bizarre Dickens-esque moment on a train he's escaping on. This makes him go to give John's dad an equally Dickens-like moment, and Christmas is saved! This movie is bad. The premise is strange, the acting is mediocre at best, and the characters are bland. The end of this movie created more questions in my mind than answered them. It was so confusing and made little sense. Along with that, Billy's "innocence" is so exaggerated that he comes off as stupid. It might have been more believable if he were under age seven, but the boy is at least ten years old, maybe even twelve. There were some scenes that were decent, even "good" acting, but the characters were underdeveloped, so it had little emotional effect. It's almost like they tried to put in too many story lines, and never finished any of them well enough. On top of that, the "Christmas star" is completely irrelevant to the plot! It only comes into play during the first few minutes of the movie, and then the last few minutes. Take those out and this would be the exact same, dumb movie. If anything the movie should have been called "The Christmas Convict." This movie is stupid. Watch one of the other few dozen worthwhile Christmas films instead.
Yes, a small gem of a Canadian film. Ed Asner is great as usual. I saw it as a little kid (one of my classmates - also once a friend - starred in it. It has been rerun countless of times since and still holds up the test of time. Not a great piece of cinema - but as far a family films and Christmas films go, this is one of the best.For all the "reviewers" who keep adulating about Barrett Oliver's performance and how he was the best child actor of the 80's - well here is a shocker: Oliver does not star in this film!! He is confused with the talented Nicolas Van Burek. Please get the info straight before you subject us to your opinions...
Probably one of the most underrated Christmas movies out there. Ed Asner was perfectly cast as a grumpy prisoner, the storyline was a very touching one, and the acting was all-around excellent. Would recommend this to anyone. Only wish I could find a tape or DVD of it somewhere ...
What I love the most about Christmas its that their his lots of old movie like this one on TV. It just finished an hour now and I wanted to write about it before I think of something else. This is a lovely film and it confirmed what I knew since a long time,That Barret Oliver was the greatest child actor their was during the 80's,He his so natural.Even now compare him to Haley Joel Osmend and you can see that Barret was even better. Anyway, the film his simple but it work,after the credit roll you feel happy and full of hope for mankind. It's a shame that they dont do Christmas movie like this anymore.
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