The Christmas Martian

It may be confusing, and it may be a bit strange, but I recorded The Christmas Martian off TV years ago - it was an instant classic! I just love the funny effects used (such as a handheld floating device which resembles a match stick!).

I can't completely explain why I like this film so much, but it's just so funny!

Anyone who likes stupid films (films which were intended to be for children, but no-one can understand) should definitely see this!

"Le Martien de Noël" ("The Christmas Martian) is a very low budget and cheesy French-Canadian film. The version I saw was dubbed into English and the print was extremely overexposed.

I noticed that several reviewers gave this film a high score and loved it growing up. Well, perhaps you might love the film if you grew up watching it. As for me, I never saw it before today and thought it was a rather silly and cheesy film...sort of like a lower budget "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" in quality. In other words, it's a pretty dopey movie...the sort most people either would never watch or they'd watch it an make fun of it.

The story is set in some small Canadian town. Two young kids happen upon a creepy Martian (he is essentially a guy in a raccoon coat with a net over his face) who has a strong penchant for eating candy. They play together in the snow quite a bit and help him repair his ship so he can head back home.

By most objective standards, this is a bad movie. The acting is amateurish, the costumes pretty cheap and the sound effects rather poor and a bit annoying. But if you enjoy this for nostalgic reasons, more power to you As for me, as an adult seeing it for the first time, it was pretty tough viewing.

I've often wondered if the scene/ concept of creating a trail of Smarties/M&M's candies to lead the alien was copied from this movie by Spielberg in E.T. It's just such a glaring similarity!!

Well, it has been a very long time since I have seen this film. In fact it is so long ago that my memory of it is probably more filled with nostalgia rather than reality. But that is probably a good place to begin. If I were 4 or 5 years old as I was when I saw the picture I would seriously impress upon you the qualities of this film. Thinking about it now I am not to sure why?

What I remember is strange events - People flying around on giant match sticks, odd coloured sweets, a strange alien sort of chap and a snowy Canadian landscape. And also the fact that I really enjoyed it at the time (Christmas). Often when you manage to catch a hold of things from your childhood they are not as well made as you remember them, but, if it really sticks in your mind they must have got something right other than just glossy special effects we now come to expect. I would definitely recommend this film as I guess the makers good intentions and hardy endeavours were matched by the resulting unique Christmas fantasy.

I'll echo someone else's comments. I grew up with this movie. Much like watching the Grinch cartoon and listening to the Norad report tracking Santa, this movie was watched whenever it was on the TV. Campy...yes. Low budget...yes. but enjoyable because of the bad makeup, poor special effects and everything hokey. Saw it again last year on a visit back to Canada and thoroughly enjoyed it.