Nativity!

12/27/2015

As warm and as enchanting as a Whisky Mac. He's a failed actor, his girlfriend has left him and gone to make it big in America, and now, school teacher Paul Maddens has to direct the Nativity play. Worse still, after a little white bragging lie to an old rival, Maddens finds things escalating out of his control. Ah, the Christmas movie, a piece of work aimed at a certain market at a certain time of year. Many movies of Christmas past have been excruciatingly bad, either by losing sight of the holiday heart, or by going for a different angle at a season which is meant to be jolly. In the main then, the Crimble picture has been blighted by a train of thinking akin to damned if you do, damned if you don't. Debbie Isitt's Nativity! will not achieve any reviews proclaiming it to be refres

12/11/2020

Silly and stupid, but it has a charm to it. <em>'Nativity!'</em> is not a film to be taken seriously, though there is entertainment in there. Martin Freeman does well as the flawed Mr. Maddens, while Marc Wootton fully commits to the role of somewhat dodgy Mr. Poppy - he can be irritating in parts, but all in all comes out more fun than annoying... albeit just. I also found Alan Carr surprisingly amusing as Patrick Burns. Interesting to see Clarke Peters, Ricky Tomlinson and Jason Watkins involved too. It's clearly made for families and young audiences, as such I think they did a good job with this. It works. It's sweet seeing the kid cast members have so much fun with it. Intrigued to see what the three sequels have in store.