Snowed in Chaos
Jessie Rogers (Dean Cain - Broadcasting Christmas) was working security for starlet, Discrete (Tiffany Maher), until a photo, supposedly of them in a clinch, became big news and led to Jessie's wife Noëlle (Kristy Swanson - Angels in the Snow) not only kicking him out but pushing for a divorce despite Jessie's pleas of innocence. But that was then and Jessie has moved to the family's remote lodge in the mountain where his girlfriend of sorts, Tasha (Rebecca Grant), shows up. Tasha is not the only one as Noëlle and her rich boyfriend, Flynn (Lochlyn Munro - The Christmas Note), also end up at the lodge and when a blizzard hits they all end up trapped there for Christmas.
"Merry Ex-Mas" is one of those movies which have a lot going on yet at the same time it doesn't. The lot going on comes from all the characters as we have Jessie, Noëlle, their daughter, Noëlle's suitor Flynn who has business issues so he is dealing with lawyer Ashley Williams, there is Jessie's friend Tasha with a Jessica Rabbit figure and there is also a mother-in-law. And all these characters are extremes with Tasha being sort of an air head who speaks her mind and makes jibes at others when she isn't bouncing around whilst Noëlle takes pot shots back. So yes we get all these characters and plenty of bickering and wait for it, Flynn is desperate to get married as his visa is running out which is why he has business issues.
But then whilst we have the comedy of all these characters and basically a lot of craziness from Ashley being a bad mum, Flynn trying to get out of deportation and the bubbly Tasha what "Merry Ex-Mas" all comes down to is Jessie and Noëlle forced to spend time together under the same roof where they have to confront how they really feel about each other. What it means is that "Merry Ex-Mas" becomes less about what will happen by the end but the stupidity along the way.
Now here is the truth because "Merry Ex-Mas" is technically bad, it is utterly crazy, in fact it is utter madness but I enjoyed it. Now I enjoy bad movies and so from Lochlyn Munro's hilarious bad accent, which I am not sure whether it was meant to be Irish or Scottish, to the ridiculousness of Rebecca Grant's Tasha and her bouncy flexibility this is an enjoyably bad movie. I could go on because every character has something bad about them yet they make you smile and the snow effects looks like they were done on an old ZX Spectrum.
What this all boils down to is that "Merry Ex-Mas" is definitely a marmite Christmas movie, you will either find it entertainingly bad or just really painful with no middle ground at all. For me, I enjoy bad movies and this was enjoyably bad. But if you don't enjoy movies that suck stay well clear.
Tags: Christmas Movies
