The Heist Before Christmas

It is a movie about good people with their backs against the wall. Don't except lots of guns, dead bodies, car crashes, explosions. You would have to have a cold heart not to enjoy this movie. It is an Amazing movie if you believe that all people have problems of one kind or another in life. We all struggle with personal problems. People who still have a little bit of child left in their hearts will enjoy this moment of Christmas. If you enjoy a different slant on a Christmas movie then I recommend the movie for a laugh and a cry with some heart felt moments along the way. Wishing you all a very merry Christmas.

In director Edward Hall's low-budget, Northern Irish tv-standard Xmas romp "The Heist Before Christmas" ne'er-do-well pre-teen scrote Bamber Todd follows mean santa-suited bank robber James Nesbitt to his woodland hideout, hoping to score some of his loot... but also there in the woods is the similarly santa-suited Timothy Spall, claiming to be the ACTUAL Santa, fallen from his sleigh. Todd's bro Joshua McLees, struggling single-mum Laura Donnelly, & the po-po led by Bronagh Waugh all get pulled into a 1hr 12min tale that writer Ronan Blaney admirably avoids some big clichés in, but in so doing so leaves some holes & questions. It's not terrible, but is sadly forgettable.

The Heist Before Christmas wants to be a festive movie for the haves not. The ones that will get nothing on Christmas day because their parents cannot afford to buy presents.

Set in the working class area of Belfast. Mikey is an antisocial kid who gets into trouble at school, is well known to the police and a tearaway at home. Mikey not wanting to acknowledge that they are poor.

His mother leaves Mikey to look after his younger brother, while she works in a shop, being micromanaged by her bullying boss. He makes Scrooge look like a pussycat.

What should be a working class Christmas story gets silly. James Nesbitt's bad santa goes on the run aftering robbing a bank. Mikey decides to help him escape in exchange for the share of the £80,000 he robbed. The police are out in Belfast stopping every male dressed as Father Christmas at gunpoint.

Mikey then encounters an old man in the woods, Timothy Spall who claims to be the real santa claus.

Tonally the film is all over the place. James Nesbitt increasingly gets involved in some Home Alone hijinx.

Mikey's mother manages to find her boss cheating on the raffle draw.

There is no comeuppance here, no warm endings. It was like the story strands remained unfinished.

For once this year sky didn't offer up your normal a reworking of the Dickens classic, Spoiler free

This year, we have a triumph in The Heist Before Christmas, a tale of two sancta's and a test of faith in the true magic of the festive period, 1 brother who has had to grow up too fast and too poor to have much love for Christmas, and an other with faith in all that is every ounce a true believer along with their mother, who shows us with a passion the love she has for her boys, as Christmas continues to crumble around her. The ending is unfortunately is a bit of a meh hence the 8 star. The main star is not the named saint nicks but young Bamber Todd who portrays Mikey he looks like going on to be a shining star.

The beginning of the movie is so funny...only in the UK/Ireland came they do this type of black comedy as well.. It has all the right elements of the classic Christmas redemption movie but with that special touch ( to us North American ), the boys actors are very good because true, in this depressing environment where we see the characters lived ...the funniest comes from their repartee And the slapstick British humour...the redemption comes to every characters. I watch this movie on a post Xmas plane ride from Europe to home. Enjoy it so much ..it left me with a warm feeling...which is always a good sign in a Christmas movie.