Santa's Senior Moment
Santa (R.D. Reid) can't believe it is Christmas already but he suits up and with the help of his assistant, Nigel (Jordan Prentice - In Bruges), heads out on his sleigh to do deliveries unaware that he has gone out on the 23rd December by mistake. Because of this Santa has an accident when he crashes into the Fox house and not only does he come around suffering from amnesia but he also loses his magical sack of presents, which unless the Fox family help him retrieve them could mean the end of Christmas. The trouble is the Fox family are a dysfunctional bunch all living their own lives and not really caring much for Christmas, but now they are going to have to if they are going to help Santa.
I watch a lot of Christmas movies, I am a complete sucker for them, and each year when we hit November I look forward to what new Christmas movies will crop up on the TV schedule. The trouble is that being a Christmas movie addict is that like with anything too many Christmas movies can become sickening, not just sickening but also depressingly predictable. I mention this because when I watched "The Night Before the Night Before Christmas" not only did it do little to keep me in the Christmas mood but it failed to really deliver anything which I hadn't seen before. As such "The Night Before the Night Before Christmas" isn't bad but it ends up just another Christmas movie.
The trouble for me is that "The Night Before the Night Before Christmas" is basically a combination of two storylines which have been done many times before. On one hand we have the story of Santa suffering from amnesia and needing help to remember who he is whilst on the other hand we have the main focus which is a dysfunctional family having to work together to embrace Christmas in order to jog Santa's memory and in doing so discovering how not being so self absorbed and actually being a family makes them happy. It is just too typical which means if say you watched this early on during the festive season it might be more entertaining but after you have filled up on Christmas movies it becomes a bit of a slog.
The sad thing about "The Night Before the Night Before Christmas" is that visually the cast is appealing but the characters border on the wrong side of false and so become a little annoying. In the end whilst Jennifer Beals and Rick Roberts are pleasant it is R.D. Reid who entertains the most with an amusing take on the amnesiac Santa with plenty of enjoyable facial expressions.
What this all boils down to is that "The Night Before the Night Before Christmas" didn't really do it for me and it may be more to do with it reworking themes explored by other Christmas movies and not adding anything really fresh to make it grab your attention.
Tags: TV Christmas Movies, Santa Claus, Christmas Movies
