Christmas Eve (2015)

Don't waste your time, clearly the writers didn't! This movie pretends to put diverse people in a interesting situation and promises to deliver something entertaining. We set a low bar, expecting little more than a lifetime Christmas special. But this movie tripped over that bar on its way to awful! It fails! One black character and a horrible caricature of Latin characters clutching their statues of Mary and delivering tamales, are what passes for diversity.. The ending ties up no loose ends what so ever! The only reason we continued to watched this movie was find out the answer to the riddle about the wine bottle (spoiler alert: push the cork in- there, now YOU don't have to watch it! ) Elevator 1: leering creep and terrified girl. This isn't the start of a romcom, it's a horror movie. The photographer so pushes boundaries that he could easily be arrested in 49 states. She's says her name is Ann, and he immediately takes liberties with it calling her "Annie". Tell you daughters to run, not walk, away from this guy! Elevator 2: weird group of mall goers. What husband doesn't wait for his wife at a hospital. There's no pay off for tattoo guy and the jilted musician with the matching tattoo in elevator 3! OCD guy tries to get tall to impress one of the ditzes, but then who shows up on the bench at the end, with the nervous musician from elevator 3- is she his wife? How do they even know each other? And the art docent, what on earth is he babbling about?! Elevator 3: The musicians, this has the most potential, but what adult musicians would behave like a middle school band, with a gun! ? (Who farted? whoever smelt it dealt it! ) The unrequited love pay off between two musicians, where did that come from? Why doesn't the violinist woman want to play silent night, what's her story? The film makers never tell it!Elevator 4: The hospital- what should be a hallmark hall of fame story gets completely ruined by a pair orderlies acting like 12 year old boys. I wanted the doctor to bitch slap them. He was too busy denying the existence of God and arguing with nurse angel about her revelations and the color of a dying woman's car (hey, filmmakers no one but no one in NYC has a car! ) . Then the patient wakes up, learns her fate, tells them she doesn't plan to tell her husband, but he will probably figure it out when she starts to smell like old fish! This one wraps up with the doctor offering a half hearted prayer (hey, filmmaker- where's the damn miracle cure!? ) and an orderly pedaling off in his urine soaked scrubs (they launder and replace these in the hospital for free, dude! ) Elevator 5: Solving the worlds energy crisis! A pair of employees, boss and underling who the boss just fired whip up the solution to deliver power to the whole wide world, on an elevator, and there was peace on earth. Two of the better actors, but no payoff since we learn that the employee is the BF of the girl trapped with the sexual predator in elevator 1 (is she poor or not?) and the neglected son of the Patrick Stewart's business man, and we never see him reunite with either of them! Which brings us to elevator 6: Patrick Stewart, the reason you all came to this movie! He must have read the soliloquy and thought it might be good practice, or maybe the filmmakers had incriminating photos of him, either way, a great actor with a mouth full of crap writing! Worse than his character and the ridiculous things he says is that the filmmakers never resolve his story. After his come to Jesus moment in an outdoor elevator (where he could have easily been removed by a crane) He's screaming at bikers from his limo, never finds the son he realized he's ignored, and shakes and mutters at the mall rats laughing as they cross the street. Don't even get us started on the total suspension of disbelief about the actual elevator/fire/power crisis. All of it is too ridiculous to even get started on. The bottom line is this movie is so bad that one feels that what really happened is the filmmakers shot footage, then edited it, and everything that was left on the floor got made into THIS movie! Don't waste your time or put another dime in the pocket of the people who thought this was entertainment or art or whatever!

This movie is not terrible but it is almost uncomfortable to watch because of the slight hint of "fakiness" and melodrama in the writing and acting. You know those people who aren't exactly offensive but you are embarrassed for their insecure and way not clever one liners? Or the guy that tries to be slick but everyone can see right through him but he is not exactly a jerk? This is this movie. It has all the typical, (yawn), hallmarks of trying to be original and witty. It is just not that original at all. I recommend you just catch it on HBO next year when you are bored.There are a few characters that are a bit amusing, but most are beyond cliché and even just stupid and annoying.

I really enjoyed this film. It was a family film that maintained a really cool independent film style. It seems to have had a smaller budget, but they really went for it and got everything out of it. Especially when it came to the actors. Man what a cast! I love Sir Patrick as much as the next guy, but I got to say Steven John Shepherd was a revelation. Man can he act. I started looking up some of the cast I didn't recognize and realized that many of them were British. Fooled me. I watched it a second time knowing this and was able to capture a few slip-ups, but for the most part they were really convincing as Americans. This film felt so comfortable with itself. It never tried to be anything it is not. I think that is the biggest take away I got from it. Be what we are. We can see the characters embrace themselves and we can also see the film embrace itself. Now I just hope more people see the film and embrace it as I have, because I sure did love it!

This movie has a really cool indie vibe, which is something not often seen in family Christmas movies. Very cool style. Also, the acting was awesome! A really diverse cast. Steven John Shepherd in particular stood out. It was a thoughtful film that the whole family can enjoy. The music was also great. The film contains some very cool renditions of Christmas classics. I haven't seen a Christmas movie this unique in a long time. Because of the way it was advertised I thought it would be a lot like love actually or valentines day, but it wasn't at all. It was also nice to see a Christmas movie with normal people. It was an overly dramatic dysfunctional family Christmas movie, but it also wasn't an overly sensitized hallmark Christmas movie. It is a very broad film. The comedy is broad, as is the drama, as is the spirituality. It gives everything a fair shot, and you should too. Hope you love it as much as I did!