I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998)

I'll be Home for Christmas (1998): Dir: Arlene Sanford / Cast: Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Jessica Biel, Gary Cole, Adam LaVorgna, Andrew Lauer: Idiotic holiday adventure that ranks right up there with Jingle All the Way as nerve wrecking stupidity. The title represents promise, which Jonathan Taylor Thomas does when his father invites him home from college promising a Porsche if he arrives by 6:00 on a particular date. He is off and running until his peers beat him up. They are angry with regards to an exam that he was suppose to help them cheat on. He wakes up in the desert wearing a Santa Claus suit. The rest is your basic road movie as he encounters strange people on his way home. Oh yeah. On a side note, his worst enemy is driving his girlfriend home. Directed by Arlene Sanford who had no better success with A Very Brady Sequel. This ranks as one of the worst of holiday films, with the handling of Thomas's rival proving mean-spirited. Thomas looks like the bunt of a bad joke. Jessica Biel recites her Seventh Heaven role, not to mention that her good girl image here is as predictable as any other in similar roles. Gary Cole is reduced to sitting at home and waiting. Perhaps he is waiting for a better script to arrive. Andrew Lauer plays a thief whom Thomas encounters on his hideous venture home. The result is an unnerving pile of road kill. Score: 1 / 10

I'll Be Home For ChristmasSince being home for Christmas is the best present, why can't it be the only present you have to buy your family?Even better, why can't there be a bribe involved like the one in this comedy?When his father (Gary Cole) entices him home for the holidays with a Porsche, Jake (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) and his girlfriend Allie (Jessica Biel) trade in their tickets to Mexico for ones to NYC.But unforeseeable forces separate them: Jake is spirited away on a hitchhiking adventure through the desert dressed as Santa Claus, while Allie is escorted to New York by Jake's nemesis (Adam LaVorgna).On the road, Jake realizes that all of his strained relationships need repairing.Surprisingly heartfelt, I'll Be Home For Christmas is a zany road movie to a fault. However, the travel obstacles faced by Jake are somewhat relatable.Incidentally, most Christmas visitors come bearing gifts of influenza. (Yellow Light)vidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

rules are all very well and good, but why should I have to write at least 10 lines about a movie when others have extensively critiqued it already, and all I want to do is disagree with the bad reviews? Sheesh. I almost didn't watch this film, after reading some of the comments here, but as it was on TV and I had nothing better to do, I ignored the bad reviews and was glad I did. Sure, it is lightweight and the plot is a bit far-fetched, but so what? It is a Christmas movie, folks, nothing more, nothing less. Jonathan Taylor Thonas strikes just the right note as a college student trying to get home for Christmas, and learning to shed his selfish, self-centered attitudes as he does. There were some genuinely funny moments, a lot of touching moments, and the only fart joke I have ever laughed at. The great scenery (parts of BC and Alberta pretending to be various locations in a cross-country race across the USA) added to the enjoyment of the film. I was just going to say "Ignore the bad reviews, I liked it" but I had to pad it out . IMDb, don't you know that brevity is the soul of wit?

I was willing to suspend my disbelief until when he opens the napkin containing evidence of who kidnapped him and dropped him out in the desert to die, he then wads it up and throws it away (littering wilderness-concealing evidence of a crime) instead of putting it in his pocket so the authorities will be able to find his kidnappers-attempted killers if he dies. The recent DEAD DOLL episode 801 of CSI shows that Eddie & the boys' kind of behavior is anything but happy happy joy joy and worthy of a life sentence behind bars.When he spots Eddie with his girl friend, Eddie's reaction is also unbelievable - he should be remorseful by then, glad to see the TT is still alive and happy to give him a ride home. As with most Disney movies that try to be comedies, this one is seriously not funny at all and all of the crimes committed by the various idiots in this farce go unpunished without charges.