https://youtu.be/oJajqsLrmaA
What you may need to know:
1. Do “They” still make big-budget Christmas movies? The 80s and 90s was riddled with them, but I can’t name any from recent years that have penetrated the public consciousness in the same way.
2. Until now. After a decade in apparent semi-retirement, our greatest living actor Kurt Russell has been quite visible the past few years, in particular with Tarantino in The Hateful Eight (2015) and S. Craig Zahler’s exceptional and brutal western Bone Tomahawk (2015). Two intensely violent roles clearly called for a professional digestif, so here he comes in the role of…Santa Claus.
3. Is it Kurt himself winning these roles, or his facial hair? It’s hard to tell if that beard is real, but going by the frankly incredible moustaches he sported in the above two roles, I would not be surprised.
4. For what it’s worth, having Chris Columbus in the producer’s chair does give it an air of Christmas movie legitimacy. It’s not Netflix’s first Christmas outing (e.g. see last year’s diabolical surprise hit A Christmas Prince), but as with hiring all those A-list directors, the streaming giant seems to have identified another niche: genuinely watchable Christmas movies for children of all ages.
5. There’s no point talking about the plot though. It’s Christmas, Santa’s gonna Santa. That’s about it. But Santa is Kurt Russell. What else do you need to know?
6. Could have done without the CG elves, but the kids will probably love it.
Doug’s verdict: Did we mention Kurt Russell is playing Santa Claus?
Release: November 22.
Great review Doug, slick and knowledgeable!
Always loved KR, starting with Escape from New York, which even back then, revealed a comic bent. Last thing, before Hateful8, I saw him in was Death Proof, which is just beautifully evil, with wonderful script and such action and twists.
Thank you for referring to Bone Tomahawk, hadn’t heard of it, but see it’s got 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, will look out for it.
It is really something.
The guy has a new one called coming down the line now,Dragged Across Concrete, which is basically a bunch of cops doing cop stuff. (Probably my favourite genre)
My first man-crush LOL! …was Kurt in The Thing :)
He has an amazing screen presence most actors would kill for, I imagine.
And yes, great review!
Arthur Christmas, Polar Express, the Grinch, Elf and two Bad Santas
His beard is majestic.