I’m not sure who walked into the casting room for The Christmas Chronicles and suggested that Kurt Russell play the jolly gift-giver, but that person is a genius. Judging from the trailer that just dropped, the rest of this movie looks like every cliche that’s ever cliched in a Christmas movie, but you take those cliches and you Kurt Russel them and I’m in.
I wouldn’t expect too much more than what you see here from a film produced by Chris Columbus (the worst of Harry Potter) and directed by the guy who did The Angry Birds Movies, but my guess is that’s exactly what Netflix wanted anyway. Part of their carpet-bombing strategy is to release dumb genre films that are easy to pick up and digest. After all, what’s a streaming service without some middling but enjoyable Christmas specials on it? Not having to pay for the movie ticket takes most of the cost sting out of it anyway, so you can just sit back, relax, and enjoy the heavily-bearded Kurt Russell to the max.
The Christmas Chronicles hits Netflix on November 22, 2018.
