The Heist Before Christmas

This is advertised and portrayed as a family comedy with a few decent stars in nesbitt and spall. In reality it's a low budget children's tv movie with a terrible plot-line.

Looks like it was made with no budget, shocking acting and I mean shocking and where they were used rubbish special effects, no real message (shoplifting is cool) and the closing Santa scene had no conclusion I mean he stayed in hospital? Did the money run out? - Honestly terrible had waited all Christmas Day to watch and was glad there were adverts so I'd have something else to watch, one of the kids fell asleep it was so boring.

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.

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.

Really enjoyed watching this movie. The child actors are the absolute stars of the show. The film is set in Northern Ireland and focuses on a socially deprived family. We weren't expecting much but had lots of laughs as a family watching this on Christmas Day. It's a breath of fresh air to not watch a film about precocious wealthy children being spoiled rotten during the festive season. The true spirit of Christmas comes through by the end of the movie. There is also a bit of Home Alone style action which my kids absolutely loved to watch. The adults had quite a few laughs too. Well done Jimmy Nesbitt!

This is without question the worst film I've seen in a very long time. The main character is a badly behaved kid that I guess is supposed to have a redemption arc storyline. That doesn't happen however, he just remains a horrible character throughout. The various bits of the story don't work at all together either. The mother's story in the shop is rubbish, again, it just highlights a horrible character and doesn't really add to the overall narrative. There are some really good actors involved and it's a real shame to see them so badly used. It's really terrible. An hour and a half if my life I'll never get back.