Weihnachten bei mir oder bei dir? 2

I didn't care much for the first 'Your Christmas Or Mine?' so was surprised to see there was a follow up. This is quite poor with dodgy acting and a stupid, and I do mean stupid, storyline. As if Geoff would have booked them in to somewhere so awful in the first place. Oh wait, the posh family has gone there by mistake. Lazy, lazy writing and not convincing at all. It is at this stage that I have admit that I bailed out on this about half way through as it was doing my head in.

I know it's a feelgood Christmas movie but this feels contrived, desperate and in the end it's just plain annoying. Give it a wide berth.

Absolute boondoggle! Don't get me wrong, if you grabbed me and a bunch of my friends and told me we could have an all expenses paid ski vacation with just a little bit of work plus inviting Jane Kracowski(sp) along for the ride I'd be all over it. I know these things are formulaic but how many misunderstandings can you fit in one roof? Also, out of curiosity, we gwon go to Jamaica? Asa has seemingly avoided the curse of child actor and fits the bill of genuine person who happens to be of station. The actress who plays Haley is also genuine and beautiful. Pretty good but the mishaps are too many.

Your Christmas or mine surrounded the loneliness of the holidays with two different family archetypes - the feuding British upper crust and the working class pub warmth. Despite occasionally playing to stereotypes, the film did a deep dive into both families, while fleshing out each of the characters. The final 20 minutes created Christmas magic when both came together.

The sequel has a bigger budget but less heart. It played with every single obnoxious stereotype imaginable with the loud lower class family. Occasionally, it also conflated race with class. Existing characters like the grandfathers on both sides and the sassy aunt received even less acknowledgment and maybe had five lines each in the film. There were newer characters added that did absolutely nothing for the plot including Jane Krakowski's American authoress.

This was such an absolute waste of talent. The original cast had so much chemistry I wanted to see the grandfathers playing off of each other, more honest intimacy between the young couple and the parents fleshing out their own relationships.

Whenever the script quieted down we got the magic intimate moments from the original. There were even times when the script let the characters grow and we learn that everyone in the working class family can ski rather than playing to stereotypes.

However, the strength of the original script surrounded the feelings of the family members and the honest communication.

But this felt more like let's take two different British family archetypes and put them into a big budget Hollywood movie and see what happens ... Sadly,none of the original magic ....

Despite the mixed reviews for the first 'Your Place or Mine' film, I actually quite enjoyed it. A little corny, and a little cliché at times, but that's what Christmas films are for. I also managed to find the first one funny and emotional at times.

This sequel, however, has ruined any fondness of the first film that I previously had.

The likeable female lead character, Hayley, from the first film becomes insufferable in this film, boiled down to a naïve character who does nothing but complain throughout the film, jumping to conclusions and offering not much else.

Asa Butterfield's character doesn't offer much else, although a weak script and lack of real storyline may be at fault here.

Character arcs from the first film, like the one with James' father, are also completely negated in this film.

The family of Hayley also come across as exceptionally ungrateful in this film, and frankly rude. A likeable family and the "hero's" of the first film become the villains of this film, with Daniel May's character leading the charge as possibly one of the most unlikeable character's I've had on my screen this year.

Not a sequel we needed, I'd urge anyone who watched and enjoyed the first film to not bother watching this one.

Ok where do I start with this dull sequel to a movie which is lacking any decent story telling in the process?

Right the two main love characters have zero chemistry in terms of connection. They both looked bored in terms of the awful dialogue they are given but there is just no spark between them for the whole movie length.

The other side characters are just wasted in terms of development.

It was an lacksture affair with a script from the 1970's comedy genre of that time.

Personally I am at a lost why they made a sequel as the original wasn't much to write home about in truth.

If your at a loose end watch something else on a Xmas movie list as this movie is just a pile of Donkey dung!