Surviving Christmas | Blogmas Day 9

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Hey Guys x

It's Blogmas day 9!

I am a huge fan of Ben Affleck, and before Blogmas I didn't know that he was in a Christmas movie, so I got really excited to see it! Then I saw the Rotten Tomatoes rating, and other reviews, and I got less excited...

Drew (Ben Affleck) is a wealthy man with no friends or family. When he discovers that he'll be spending Christmas alone, he decides to pay a family to spend the holiday with him. But can money ever buy you happiness?

OK, so this film wasn't good. It wasn't the worst Christmas film I've ever seen, but... it was definitely up there.

For a start, it completely hits you over the head with Christmas. It forces it down your throat as a way of saying 'This isn't bad. This isn't unrealistic. This makes sense. It's Christmas!', and none of these things are actually true, so it just doesn't work.

Speaking of being unrealistic... it's honestly the most unrealistic plot that I've ever come across in a Christmas movie - and they're not exactly known for how realistic they are! The thing is, even if the concept in itself was realistic, the idea of a family actually accepting this (and then acting the way that the family do in the movie, including letting him live in their house!) is just insane.

While watching it, I thought it might end up being one of those films that's so bad it's actually good, but after seeing it, it is just bad. It's over-the-top cheesy, and some parts of it are just embarrassing.

What makes it worse is that this film actually has a really good cast. In addition to Ben Affleck it also stars James Gandolfini, Christina Applegate, Catherine O'Hara and Jennifer Morrison. So the fact that the film isn't good just makes it worse, because with this cast, even when this was made in 2004, there was potential for a really great film.

It tries really hard to be heartfelt, and on this point I totally get where it was coming from. The problem with this attempt is that the film doesn't spend any time making you care about these characters. So anything that tries to be heartfelt falls flat because you don't care about the characters in the first place.

Overall, I enjoyed watching this movie even though it really wasn't great, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you have time to kill.

6/10 - Originality
7/10 - Christmas Spirit
5/10 - Christmas Music

It's 16 days until Christmas!

Come back tomorrow for Blogmas day 10!

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