Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger! (2012)

I'm in the minority when I say that I enjoyed this movie solely for the performances by the cast members. I tried not to be too alarmed by the illogical plot twists and let it mar my entertainment.The film opens with primary school teacher, Donald Peterson and his very pregnant wife getting ready to spend their first Christmas away from Donald's partisan father played with cold hauteur by Ian McNeice.David Tennant has the unenviable task of playing the dual roles of the mild mannered, bewildered Donald as well as his cold, calculating twin brother Roderick and it is an absolute treat to watch such a hilariously camp performance. The plot rapidly moves into suspension of disbelief especially whenever Mr Poppy (Marc Wooton) appears on screen. Mr Poppy is still reeling from the departure of Mr Maddens (played by Martin Freeman) during the events of the last film, and now has his heart set on winning top prize for St Bernadette's Primary school at "A Song for Christmas", a nationwide school competition. to this end, he takes the entire class and a hapless Donald on a road trip across the Welsh countryside. Picking up an unknown baby and a donkey furthers adds to the surrealism.Side plots include Mr Shakespeare(Jason Watkins) of the rival school Oakmoor determined to cheat his way to winning and Roderick Peterson coolly surveying the other groups and 'tweaking' his choir at the last minute to win at any cost. The best one liners come from the competition's MC, Angel Mathews a retired diva of the day played with sharp wit by Jessica Hynes. The movie comes to its predictable conclusion soon enough though that is not what Donald Peterson refers to as "his best Christmas yet". That is left to the finale with the birth of his sons and the rather touching semi reconciliation scene between the twin brothers.What I found surprising about the movie was that even with a predictable plot, it was the earnest performances from adult and child alike that set it apart. At no point did I feel that the adults were being ironic when improvising their lines. The story was silly, charming and unexpectedly touching at times. I would definitely recommend this as guilty viewing pleasure for Christmas, preferably well tanked up on the holiday spirit of your choice.

Rumour has it that Guantanamo Bay use these Nativity films for torture. I see why. Its just inhumane. Please do not subject your kids to this mental torture as they could easily maintain brain damage for life.What Debbie Isitt and her amateur film crew do is they obtain the worst singing/atonal kids to sing about Christmas and happiness, and snow and Santa and Lucifer Son of Satan and family togetherness and Jesus. There's also a bit where they kidnap a baby and 14 kids or something like that. Seeing as how annoying the kids where, I was hoping I was watching the news.The good thing is that I never want kids now. This may save me misery in the future. This could be a more humane way of treating the China 1 child policy, just show every citizen this dirge and no- one will reproduce.In comparison, Paul Blart: Mall Cop is our lord and saviour. Nativity 2 is so bad I am genuinely thinking of starting a mini-cult worshipping Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Anyone want to join?Nice to see a 5 star performance by David Tennant's stunt double. I mean, when North Korea show off kid's talents on television they have them play tunes on the guitar. And you know what? They do it properly unlike our irritating, stuck-up, snotty-nosed, little brats. I think we, as a country, need to seriously think about our future. These kids will run the country one day... and that is something (like climate change and the oil crisis) we should really ponder and is a serious imminent threat.

Some people who've reviewed this film have absolutely no Christmas spirit. "It's a film written for kids by kids" what the hell is wrong with that?! Who has the most Christmas spirit? KIDS! Duh....I love Christmas and I love Mr Poppy and David Tennant....this is an incredibly adorable film with a very cheesy theme based around 2 families- Mr Poppy and his kids and David Tennant and his wife and unborn children...well born by the end of the film. I don't really see how anyone can insult a film which portrays Christmas spirit through the eyes of children and Mr Poppy :-P I loved the first Nativity film and I was quite terrified that this film was going to be awful because it might've killed Nativity for me but to my surprise it was just the same as the first. Cheesy; based around a goofball teacher and a group of children with TONS of Christmas spirit with the added bonus of David Tennant!!! I loved it. The adventure is more extreme and sweeter and it is SO freakin cute!! It's the perfect Christmas movie....and anyone who heckles it has no Christmas spirit :-P

I saw this on Wednesday on a slightly sceptical note,having seen the Daily Mail's review for it but as I really liked the first one,I was willing to give it a go. Fortunately for me,the tickets were free so the only thing I wasted was time. Just as a summary, it was bad. How bad? Well,my sister had to revert to texting on her mobile,something she'd never do at a film. First of all,let me say the good things about this film. The first 20 minutes are fairly entertaining, the performances are decent enough and the songs aren't half bad albeit the fact that most of them are forgettable. Where this lacks is the charm and how much it drags. I hate films that drag and you end up questioning how long is the said film exactly. The last film to do that to me was Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2:Rodrick Rules. As for the charm aspect,there is little to no charm. Remember the little ginger kid and the one with the hat? Yeah,they're still in it but they've grown up slightly and have been replaced by a three year old and a chubby kid wearing a donkey outfit. And the ending drags and is also really predictable. So that's my review. Would I recommend it? Probably not but if you have little kids with you and have seen everything else, go see it. If not,there's plenty of newly released dvds to choose from. Just rent them and buy some popcorn.