- Critic Score
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88Fast paced and engagingly acted.
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83This Christmas is the rare movie about a cozy household at holiday time that's as funny and dramatic and poignant as any seasonal family get-together should be.
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75What's surprising is how well Whitmore, the director, manages to direct traffic. He's got one crisis cooling, another problem exploding, a third dilemma gathering steam and people exchanging significant looks about secrets still not introduced. It's sort of a screwball-comedy effect, but with a heart.
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75At the multiplex where so many holiday movies feel regifted, This Christmas is a gift.
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It's warm, witty and alive, with a fantastic cast and a belief in its characters that transcends its formulaic tendencies.
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75It's different from the usual fare in one obvious way -- most of the cast are African Americans -- and, more importantly, in its willingness to leave some problems unsolved and volatile or unhappy people unchanged.
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75Everyone in this madly good-looking clan has got soapy problems as befits an aspirational, say-amen holiday movie.
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70Impressively stays away from the cheese and the sap that ordinarily accompany holiday pictures.
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70A rare holiday treat, a package that's both thoughtfully selected and sure to please its intended recipients.
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70The result is a big, gushy, emotional, secret-driven, family-obsessive casserole, perhaps facile in some of its resolutions, but so full of good heart and love -- the real kind, which is scratchy, awkward, difficult to express and doesn't conquer all but just some -- that the movie is difficult to resist.
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70This carefully observed film has lots of heart.
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67"Christmas" won't wow anyone with its audacity or originality, but it's bound to make plenty of people happy with its slick, crowd-pleasing familiarity.
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63Overstuffed, formulaic but very easy to take.
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63No matter how silly the situation, each member of the uniformly strong cast creates a nice balance between sentimental and sweet - which is just how every holiday gathering should feel.
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63So full of solid performances and appealing characters that I wished writer/director/producer Preston Whitmore ("The Walking Dead") had considered the dictum "less is more."
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63Enjoyable enough. Though like some holiday fare, it doesn't quite stay with you.
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63One of those overstaffed, overstuffed "when do we eat?" holiday dramedies. Call it a double-extra-strength episode of "Soul Food."
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60Writer-director Preston A. Whitmore II throws enough soap opera for an entire TV season into a story that nearly -- but not quite -- sinks from the weight of all these implausible events. Animated acting and the sheer chaos of this squabbling family give the film a comic buoyancy.
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60Boisterous and bittersweet, the film is not dull, but it does feel hopelessly overstuffed, with scant time to devote to any one story line.
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Not a bad movie, per se. It's just harmless and bland and dull and predictable, and sometimes that's worse than a bad movie.
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Occasionally engaging but very chaotic movie.
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40Like mum's home-made comfort food, it's warming but not really that good for you.
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It's redemption through sentimentality, salvation through schmaltz.
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The cast has spirit, but the dialogue and situations are phonier than the Yule log on TV.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 3 out of 5
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Mixed: 1 out of 5
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Negative: 1 out of 5
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JayH.5
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DD.8Excellent, the kids can even watch this one.
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JoshC.1