A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

An great ensemble cast, the preview looks fun and engaging, what could go wrong? Well, when you start asking the people around you "Why? Why would they do that?" and it happens a few times, that is a big red flag. The fact that there is literally NO point, no connection between certain characters, events, etc. is another red flag. Ok, bad decision making, no cohesion between elements, a meandering and senseless plot, I feel dumber having to have watched it. And I really like ALL of the stars! Why? Why did this movie have to be so poorly executed? I guess we'll never know.

A wildly uneven comedy with quite a few phoned in jokes and performances. Nonetheless it is alright and I would say Tim Allen's character and acting are fairly interesting and make the movie, at least, watchable. The film has quite a few stars such as Jessica Alba but really squanders the potential. This isn't a good movie, but it has a few profound moments and you'll get through it.

Another reviewer for this picture says he doesn't believe a town like the one in the story could have so many stupid people in it. Well I beg to differ on that. My town only has about three thousand residents and I could probably come up with a cast for this film. It would have been even easier about four decades ago when the population was less than half that. Seriously, one needs to live in a small town to understand, but as John Mellencamp would put it, "that's good enough for me".Now I haven't seen Tim Allen in many movies, I basically know him as Tim the Tool Man Taylor from the hit TV show. I also know he dabbled as Santa Clause in a series of flicks, so to see him here as an alcoholic dirt bag was quite the shock to the system. Funny, but I never made the father-son connection with Eric Norris (Luke Grimes) until the very end of the story when Larry (Allen) dredged up his bad experience in Vietnam. Don't be fooled by the title of the picture. The fact that it's Christmas time in the movie is ancillary to the story line. Vincent D'Onofrio, who portrays deputy Carl Hooker is straight out of Stallone's "First Blood" playbook as an ignorant redneck, and the film's fatal ending for Tim Allen's character mimics Eastwood at the conclusion of "Gran Torino". I think the film would have been better served to end it right after the siege at Vicente's Liquor Mart, but I guess they needed to tie up Eric's relationship with Kate (Michelle Mylett) for the classic happy ending.

.. all in all - it's an entertaining piece of cinematography and I had some fun watching it :) But it's not for everyone for sure. You will like it or you will hate it. To enjoy this piece fully, you should have good/weird sense of humour and should be able to accept some sarcasm on certain subjects, a bit blood'n'core and bad language. If you like flicks like Tucker and Dale vs Evil .. then it might be just your cup of a tea.