In the end, the film succumbs to the tropes and emotional contrivances of the family melodrama at its core, ending up as a serviceable yet mostly forgettable addition to the already overstuffed genre of holiday-themed films.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 5, 2019

The film doesn't know how to get out of its own way and foreground what's working, namely the dynamo of screen presence placed more prominently in the advertising than the feature itself.

| Original Score: C+ | Nov 5, 2019

The film's no great shakes, but Russell's star power in "The Christmas Chronicles" is a gift anyone should be happy to claim.

| Dec 18, 2018

[A] thoroughly enjoyable confection.

| Dec 12, 2018

Hot Santa is a premise that requires a few risks, but this movie falls just short of making the leap. Still the film has a few interesting points to make as to the way the idea of how Christmas has changed over the years.

| Nov 29, 2018

Russell makes for a very fine Santa Claus, but he can't elevate a fairly dull script and a plot so familiar that even the youngest viewers will see all the twists coming.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 29, 2018

The Christmas Chronicles is a deliciously surprising and charming adventure for the whole family.

| Nov 26, 2018

The masculine Jesus was all I could think about when watching The Christmas Chronicles... This is a Santa who, in the parlance of the times, can get it.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Nov 26, 2018

This festive family adventure for Netflix leaves you with a hyperglycaemic glow, and that's mainly down to Kurt Russell as the most likeable Santa Claus in years.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 26, 2018

It's not terrible, just more ho-hum than ho, ho, ho.

| Nov 26, 2018

Angry Birds director Clay Kaytis delivers a predictable stocking filler from a screenplay that ultimately slides into mushy family melodrama.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 23, 2018

Like being slightly tipsy on good mulled wine.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 22, 2018

If this movie comes your way, you'd better watch out.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Nov 21, 2018

The whole thing is out-and-out tinsel-dunked tat, but oddly honourable with it - the Christmas spirit might be just a few steps up from bathtub grade, but it still packs a kick.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 21, 2018

Between the atrocious green-screen work, the blatant stock footage helicopter shots of city skylines and painfully obvious Toronto-for-America locations, you would be forgiven for thinking this movie was made in 1992.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Nov 21, 2018

Russell, he of the shaggy mane and those twinkly, crinkly eyes, digs into the classic role with a sleighful of energy, humor and gusto, deftly making the character his own with guidance from Matt Lieberman's inventive, myth-bending script.

| Nov 20, 2018

Make some cocoa for the family, and spike yours if you have to, but remember what the holiday is about: watching mediocre, predictable movies with the people you love.

| Original Score: B | Nov 20, 2018

It's as predictable as an Advent calendar, but thanks to Kurt Russell's grizzly charms, The Christmas Chronicles at least gives us one of the movies' best Santas yet.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 19, 2018

With its saccharine score, saturated cinematography, and trite platitudes, the film is formulaic and forgettable except for Kurt Russell's performance as the lovable legend.

| Nov 14, 2018