Ed's Review Dot Com

ACH, Medien Capital Treuhand, Regent Entertainment

Connie Sellecca, Corbin Bernsen, Cole Sprouse, Dylan Sprouse, Eric Jacobs, Sonny Carl Davis, Tony Larimer, David Millbern, Shauna Thompson, Joan Mullaney, JJ Neward, Paul Kiernan

Justin (Cole and Dylan Sprouse) is a little boy with who witnesses his best friend’s parents pronounce that they are getting divorced over Thanksgiving Dinner.  Then afterward, trouble brews in their house.  Mom and Dad are fighting over their financial situation and Justin witnesses this.  Little does he know that they quickly get over it, and makeup.   Dad finds the old Santa costume in the garage and dresses up to come in an apologize for his bad behavior.  Troubled over the arguing, Justin hears the “Ho Ho Ho” coming from the living room and founds his mom in a smooch with old Santa.  Naturally he assumes Santa is trying to replace his Dad, and when Dad gets a job out of town with a huge bonus if completed by Christmas,  he leaves.  Justin then decides the only way to make Santa stay away from his house is to be as naughty as possible.  It seems that from this point on, everything goes from bad to worse as every event seems to convince him that his Mom is really having an affair with Jolly Old Saint Nick.

This is a pretty cute little Christmas movie with a lot of humor in it.  It’ reminds me of Dennis the Menace where the little boy is not really bad, but just a victim of circumstances, and everything he tries to do just makes the situation worse.  It’s cute how kids (and adults) can overhear part of a conversation and completely jump to the wrong conclusion.  Once this jump is made, everything seems to get worse and cement the conclusion in the first place.   But when Dad suddenly comes home to a well booby trapped house, it gets really funny!  Maybe a little too slapstick for some tastes, but it is funny.

Note to parents:  For little kids, the parents do tell the kid that it’s been Daddy all along, but after Mom and Dad we unable to find the toy that Justin wants, the real Santa does show up and bring it, and of course the parents miss it, but Justin still believes.  So it doesn’t spoil the whole Santa thing after all.