A starry cast and family-friendly humour make this British comedy an enjoyable - and sometimes unique - yuletide offering.

| Original Score: 7.3/10 | Feb 29, 2020

There's a great performance from Jim Broadbent as a bumbling but wise Santa and the fun cast play it for laughs and warm, mushy moments.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 5, 2019

With farting reindeer and frugal budgets, Christopher Smith, the man behind Triangle and Severance, has forged something almost as terrifying.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 5, 2019

There are enough welcome details in the margins to keep viewers from fidgeting: a likeable if unevenly paced story, some inventive Lapland-related steampunk, and character actors one would happily crawl over jagged holly to see.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 5, 2019

As with any Christmas film, it's more about the mood it conjures than how good the film is objectively. With that in mind, this is a comedy that's less about warm festive fuzziness than playing up its "crime caper for kids" conceit.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 5, 2019

[A]s they say in merry old England, a curate's egg, good in parts. Some parts - the solid cast, a few well-turned one-liners - are really quite good indeed, although viewers have to wade through a moderate fug of reindeer fart jokes to get to them.

| Nov 5, 2019

There's a sprinkling of grit amid the tinsel.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 14, 2015

British Christmas comedy has rude humor, some mature themes.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 28, 2015

Overall, there's as much for adults to enjoy as kids, although the latter will probably be the only ones to appreciate the farting reindeer and the poop pellets fired at cop cars in pursuit.

| Dec 17, 2014

Ho-ho-hum.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 11, 2014

Flatulent reindeer, sugary sentimentality, ropey effects and a rubbish riff on The Shawshank Redemption.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 8, 2014

Two levels of hohohos at work here: Spall's likeable scepticism (for adults) and reindeer flatulence (kids).

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 8, 2014

Former horror maestro Christopher Smith, who made his name with Severance, Triangle and Black Death, goes in search of his inner child with this moderately likable Christmas romp.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 7, 2014

You've got to take the rough with the smooth, and there's a lot of smooth here.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 5, 2014

Solidly entertaining Christmas movies are so rare that when one comes along it feels like the best gift ever.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 5, 2014

Christopher Smith, better known for horror films such as Triangle and Severance than yuletide mush, does a fair job of adding some grit to the typical Christmas film. It helps that he has Jim Broadbent playing Santa Claus with such avuncular glee.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 4, 2014

This blend of tinsel and grit is elevated by the performances.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 4, 2014

A Christmas tale that has a slightly rougher edge than usual, yet still brims with good will to all men - even hardened criminals.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 4, 2014

The film is listing, overladen with cheap trinkets. Dogged, heartfelt acting works hard to prop it up.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 4, 2014

Smith carefully balances light and shade in all aspects of the film.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 4, 2014