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“Even Satan can’t out trick Ticketmaster, I’m not a bot”
Dear Santa is certainly a movie and without a second through you can instantly tell this was made to be sent for streaming services. That first half until the concert scene was insufferable, cringeworthy and downright embarrassing to watch, hogging more Hollywood cliches than Scrooge and his cheddar. Fortunately, when it’s very very very stupid, it can become slightly funny but I think at that point I was laughing at how dumb it was. The second half picks it up and then it’s pretty much thrown away in those last 20 minutes with tearjerker sequences, plot holes and a strange but not surprising cameo from Ben Stiller. Jack Black is certainly the best part in Dead Santa, everyone else either can’t act or just is working with such a terrible script that they’ve just accepted there’s no point trying.
Ultimately, Dear Santa has a fairly interesting premise and with the helm of Oscar winner Bobby Farrelly and Jack Black donning the Satan suit, I thought this might’ve been a good time. Then I realised Peter Farrelly won the Oscar, and Bobby was the one who made The Three Stooges and The Heartbreak Kid. Dear Santa is conclusively not funny or emotive enough to create a satisfyingly wicked tale for the holidays and can only really make it into the ‘so bad, it’s good’ category, even though I’d argue we give that pass to way many Christmas movies.
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