Dear Santa

Stumbling upon the 2024 movie "Dear Santa" by random chance, of course I opted to give the movie a fair chance. I had never heard about the movie prior to sitting down to watch it.

Writers Ricky Blitt, Peter Farrelly and Dan Ewen put together a fairly entertaining script. The contents of the storyline definitely were original, and there were some good moments throughout the course of the 107 minutes that the movie ran for.

Of the entire cast ensemble in the movie, I was only familiar with actors Jack Black and Keegan-Michael Key. The acting performances in the movie were good.

It was actually my first time to see who Post Malone is. Sure, I knew of him by name, but I never have seen the joker before now as he showed up in this movie. And I can't say that I had been missing out on anything, except a dude with ridiculous face tattoos and equally ridiculous music. I can't claim that it was a big deal for me that the guy was in the movie, no Sir, not at all.

However, the movie was just lacking something to truly make it outstanding. If was as if the movie was missing some crucial ingredient, it just felt a bit underwhelming. As such, this is not going to be a returning Christmas classic for me. In fact, I doubt that I will ever return to watch it again for a second time.

My rating of director Bobby Farrelly's 2024 movie "Dear Santa" lands on a five out of ten stars.

I literally never write reviews on this site but felt compelled to after seeing how poorly this movie has been rated. It's far from great and after watching the trailer it was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be. Jack Black was pretty solid though I wouldn't say his best performance. The acting all around was good enough.

I'm guessing some angry Christians and the fairly sad plot line had some people unfairly give this an instant 0. It definitely has some laughs, and I thought was decently written. In reality it should be about a 6.5 on this site imo. I'm throwing it a 10 to help out.

Jack Black is undoubtedly the star of this film.

His acting, eccentric mannerisms, and slapstick comedy evoke Jim Carrey's style - both actors light up the screen with their infectious energy!

The film cleverly weaves witty and darkly satirical dialogue into a broader commentary on contemporary Western society, particularly addressing issues of childhood bullying and dysfunctional parent-child relationships.

Yet the movie never wallows in darkness; instead, it remains vibrant, colorful, and full of laughs.

Post Malone delivers an entertaining cameo, and true to Christmas movie tradition, it wraps up with a heartwarming ending!

Perfect for holiday season viewing...

Recommended!

The movie feels disjointed at several points with the ending appearing to be haphazardly thrown together. That didn't make sense to me until I looked at the cast list and realized there might have been a major re-write, re-shoot. Jack Black's partner from Tenacious D, Kyle Gass, plays an English teacher that is in the far background of one scene.. and looks very much like Santa Claus. Now this is just my speculation, but I don't imagine he would have had such a small part in the film initially (historically he has always had much larger roles). After his controversial statements on the attempted assassination of Trump I have a suspicion the film went through major editing and changes.. making the ending feel out of place. It's just a guess at this point, but it's the only thing that seems to explain why professional actors and directors would release something this horrible.

Just because I gave it a 5 star review doesn't mean the movie isn't watchable or worth watching. It left me entertained and I watched the movie from start to finish. Overall it just wasn't a good movie but that doesn't make it a bad movie.

Jack Black is Jack Black and he helps make the movie funny and enjoyable. The story is solid and the children interacting with Jack Black do a great job keeping up with his comedic timing and energy.

You'll only watch this movie once a year or maybe only once in your lifetime. With all the Christmas or Holiday movies out there it's refreshing to find some new ones that can fill a much needed space.

I say enjoy it for what it's worth!