James Proclaims!

And so this is Christmas.

Well Christmas Eve anyway. Which means that for another year my Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) films must draw to a close. Which is fine, because hardly anyone reads them anyway and you’d have to question the sanity of someone who persists in producing this drivel for eight consecutive years. But in the unlikely event you enjoy this annual folly then you can rest easy in the knowledge that year 9 is already written.

As is year 10.

And year 11.

And most of year 12.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, because year 8 is yet to be fully signed off. For that to happen we’ll need the final entry of this year’s installment. But which film has grabbed the prestigious ‘Door 24’ slot?

Why it’s none other than 2022’s Violent Night. The concept of a jaded Father Christmas violently dispatching bad guys might sound a bit like 2020’s Fatman but Violent Night is a completely different beast. This is a movie which embraces its silliness. At times it’s laugh-out-loud funny, but it still also fulfills its objective as a more than decent action flic. Throw in a few tongue-in-cheek nods to Die Hard and Home Alone and this is definitely a movie that I’ll be re-watching for years to come.

It is all big, loud, stupid fun, but it never pretends to be anything else.

Score for Christmasishness

This is a Christmas movie all the way through. It’s not family viewing and won’t be to everyone’s tastes but there is only one time of year to watch this, and I can imagine this might top the festive viewing schedules of quite a few people. It’s certainly going to be on mine most years from here on in.