A Clüsterfünke Christmas

It's an MTV spoof on the formulaic and sometimes sickly sweet holiday films. This is actually better written than many of the holiday films and the acting is good. Imagine a town where coffee isn't available only hot cocoa, that' the fictional Yuletide, Maine.

There are a lot of double entendres, like the game they call cornholing between Cheyenne Jackson's character and Ryan McPartlin's character that involves tossing fruitcakes at a hole like a bean bag toss. I'd like to see more parody holiday films, hope there are more next year.

Hope the cast had as much fun making it as I had watching it.

I guess I'm just not silly enough to have embraced this show. Im not a Hallmark movie fan and was really looking for a parody of those movies; and granted there were pieces (small) that achieved that purpose. But the dialogue between the inn owners went on too long as did the montages. My fav scene was the "gay" guy ....! It didn't parody any Hallmark scene, but was funny. I think this show will appeal to an audience that revels in the new SNL or Dumb/Dumber movies.

A Clusterfunke Christmas (2021) -

I put this film on with the intention of watching the first 15 minutes and then turning it off, because I had expected it to be awful.

And for those first 15 minutes I was right, because I had no idea at that point that it was a parody. It had been unclear, because some of the other 'Made For TV' films had actually been that bad, without deliberately trying. Parodies of themselves in some ways.

However, I felt that it was going somewhere, so I did actually stick with it.

If I hadn't realised then that it was a comedy I would definitely have given up after Holly, played by Vella Lovell, turned up at the inn.

Holly was a vile character and I never actually warmed to her. I felt sorry for anyone that she might have ended up with. So it was fortunate that Cheyenne Jackson, in the role of Frank, was not exactly the nicest character either, although he was sexy. A bit daft and aggressive, certainly to Holly, but definitely nice to look at.

Once I realised what they were trying to achieve, I actually quite liked a lot of the references, because I've often wondered why no one pays for coffee and so on and the traditional Hallmark, Etc films have consistently been so formulaic that they were easy to ridicule.

It was actually quite laugh out loud funny at some points, because as a self confessed connoisseur of Christmas films, it was easy for me to recognise everything that they were taking the mick out of, but I felt that they had really missed an opportunity to go huge with the jokes, with so many other films to replicate and aspects that were crying out for ridicule from so many of the stories they were sending up.

But I did enjoy it and I would definitely look for it again next year.

6.5/10.

This does for Hallmark Christmas movies what Airplane! Did for Airport. The writing is smart, and the cast is perfect, hitting just the right notes between sincerity and satire as they spoof the cliches of the genre. Bonus points for some very funny double entendres - and for making fun of their own product placement.

Ridiculously OTT, every single Christmas cliche in the book, done in a tongue and cheek way. The only think missing was the sudden Blizzard that strands the lead, Holly (OF COURSE her name is Holly! Lol).