"...Pilates....?"
The big festive offering from Netflix tries to be all types of Christmas film - family, comedy, action, drama, even musical - and thus never manages to hit a consistent tone. It very quickly pulls a big emotional punch, which pays off beautifully at the end of the film, but in between there is a fairly standard tale of a bickering older brother/younger sister pair of stowaways on Santa's sleigh which crashes, jeopardising Christmas, and their subsequent efforts to help to save the day. Indeed, the pair of young actors are not easy to engage with at the start, but their performances seem to get better as the movie progresses, and the real selling point is of course the majesterial Kurt Russell as a cooler version of Santa, and he is indeed immensely entertaining in the role as expected. Both the writing and CGI effects are variable, but there is enough festive dressing and narrative momentum to keep interest. The Christmas Chronicles (deliberately?) even references festive favourites including Home Alone, Elf, The Santa Clause and Gremlins, and whilst the film is pleasant enough, it is unlikely to become a repeat Christmas classic like those movies.
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