The 12 Days of Christmas Eve

Mawkish Starts off ok but gets tedious in the middle.

Then just irritating.

After a while I just fast forwarded it.

Lacks any of the the Dickensian charm and lessons that are so wonderful in most of the Christmas Scrooge movies.

Not a good groundhog movie either.

Off putting with Kelsey Grammars feet too.

Supporting actors not great so must have been low budget.

How lunch more of a review do I need to write to submit this. Ridiculous that I have to have so many characters that I am just filling the space to get this submitted.

Halve the number please !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So we've all become familiar with the standard Hallmark/Lifetime holiday movie season. Most of the movies follow very familiar formulas, and that can be great, but they do tend to run together after a while.

This one, though, stands out a bit. Part of that is Grammer's performance, he's a perfect moodern Scrooge analog. It's hard to imagine this working as well without him. Another thing that really works here is the somewhat darker take on Santa. Not too dark, don't worry, but I do think there's a bit of a mythic trickster quality to him here that I quite like.

There are a few things that still fall a bit flat. For example, some of the protaginist's arguments with his daughter seem rushed and out of nowhere, and their relationship particularly gets a tad repetitive. But overall this is one of the better tv holiday movies I've seen.

Not sure what scrooges the people that have this 1 or 2 stars are but this is a beautifully executed holiday movie.

It's obviously not an original script but it's been written in a way that is highly relatable and connects with the audience.

I wouldn't call this a typical feel good movie but there are emotions throughout more like a holiday rollercoaster.

Acting is on point and I'd be happy to watch this again or possible every year.

Not sure what scrooges the people that have this 1 or 2 stars are but this is a beautifully executed holiday movie.

It's obviously not an original script but it's been written in a way that is highly relatable and connects with the audience.

I wouldn't call this a typical feel good movie but there are emotions throughout more like a holiday rollercoaster.

Acting is on point and I'd be happy to watch this again or possible every year.

Despite being somewhat off-putting early on, because of some characters being over-drawn, this movie is well worth watching. But be sure to stick with it until the very end. After watching it for a second time I needed to come back and increase my rating from 8 to 10.

After the opening sequences that establish the characters and the situations they face, and after the essential nature of the movie has been revealed, the plot really finds its footing and gets rolling. It begins pulling together different plot elements from earlier in the movie into a well-orchestrated, meaningful, engaging, and highly satisfying closing sequence of scenes. The acting was simultaneously both quirky *and* good.

There is a lot of subtle humor, and you'll want to pay close attention to pick up some of it. I missed a number of little throwaways the first time through. On the second time through I laughed when I realized how well they set up, in advance, some little bit of humor that I had not quite "gotten" on my first viewing. Without giving away anything about the actual plot, when you watch the movie, be sure to take a close look at the candle at the end of the opening scene, and also take note of the news story about the escaped reindeer not long thereafter.

There were also some good, solid comedic lines and events that were anything but subtle! My second viewing was even more entertaining than my first viewing had been, which is a rare thing for a movie to be able to pull off. Someone who had not previously seen the movie was watching it with me -- they had quite a number of break-out-laughing moments.

But this movie is more than just its humor. It also contains a number of deeper insights, and it presents some life lessons that we could all take to heart.

Overall, this is a well-crafted movie. As of Dec 4th, 2022, as I write this, "The 12 Days of Christmas Eve" is my favorite 2022 Christmas movie to date.

You can see all of my other favorite 2022 Christmas movies by clicking on my profile link above; then look for "2022 FAVORITE CHRISTMAS ROM-COMs" under "Lists".

The 12 Days Of Christmas Eve (2022) -

I really hadn't expected to get very far in to this one because the previous Kelsey Grammer seasonal films that I've seen have not hit the right notes with me at all. However I have to say that this one really surprised me. Although there were still some very silly bits that could have been tamed slightly to make it less cheap.

A tweak on Dickens 'A Christmas Carol' story and in the style of 'Groundhog Day' (1993) Kelsey in his role of Brian was given 12 days to fix the problems he had created in his life with his family, work and his outlook on life in general. As I watched I did feel that it's a shame that these redemptions always find people so late in life. I'm 44 and need someone to show me the true meaning of Christmas already! Don't wait until I'm so old and decrepit that I can't really make a big enough difference please? Or are the powers that be waiting for me to make my fortune first? (Good Luck).

What followed was a repeated, yet cleverly not a repetitive day of working out how to rebuild his relationship with his daughter Michelle, (Kelsey's real life daughter Spencer Grammer) and I have to say that actually he should have succeeded by about day 6 if it wasn't for the fact that Michelle didn't exactly make things easy for him. I'm sure he had a long history of cocking up and not being there for her, but she did throw it back in his face when he did try so what does that say about her? Like Father, like Daughter I supposed?

It had some humour and didn't go too far with the extremities and although not everyone was an amazing performer, perhaps they were directed to be a bit over the top, it was ultimately a charming message and full of heart so that the daft bits didn't matter so much.

And it was certainly better than his actual 'Christmas Carol' (2004) attempt. I'd watch this one again.

7.59/10.