Movie Review: The Christmas Chronicles (2018)

The movie stars Kurt Russell, Judah Lewis, Darby Camp, Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Oliver Hudson.

I had considered watching this movie on more than one previous occasion. But, from the description, it sounded like dozens of other holiday films I've seen and, because of that, I usually wound up watching something else instead. However, since yesterday was Christmas and I had already watched A Christmas Story three times that day, I decided to give this film a shot. As it turns out, it was pretty good.

As I suspected would be the case, some parts of this film were very similar to other movies, including things like rescuing reindeer, finding Santa's bag of toys and even rescuing Santa (Russell) from jail. Even the whole brother and sister being depressed over a lost parent seemed a little too familiar. That being said, there were still quite a few things about this movie that I thought made it unique and enjoyable to watch.

One of the big ones had to be Russell's non-traditional take on Santa Claus. He wasn't plump or even jolly and, on more than one occasion, made a point of reminding us the various portrayals in advertisements, etc. were a false representation. This made him interesting to watch because, unlike dozens of other Santa Claus interpretations, it wasn't always easy to figure out what he was going to end up doing. In fact, for a while, I wasn't completely sure he wasn't just going to abandon Kate (Camp) and Teddy (Lewis) in Chicago.

I also found I liked how this movie made sure to keep things fun. Yes, there were times when it got a little ridiculous, such as Santa's jailhouse rock concert. But, there are way too many family Christmas movies that are just too serious and, as a result, just aren't as magical as they should be. The filmmakers seemed to remember that when making this movie.

My only real complaint about the film is I didn't like the elves, largely because they reminded me a bit too much of the creatures from Gremlins and were pretty fake looking. I'm not convinced the movie wouldn't have been better off copying other movies by using child actors instead. Fortunately, the overall movie made up for that.

It wasn't perfect. But, overall, I have to say this was a fun family Christmas film that I did wind up enjoying much more than I thought I would. I would highly recommend taking the time to watch it.

My Grade: A