DEAR SANTA (HBO MAX) (2024)

SYNOPSIS: When a young boy accidentally sends a Christmas letter with one crucial spelling error, he gets an unexpected visit from NOT Santa (Jack Black). From the hilarious minds behind DUMB & DUMBER, Christmas is about to go up in flames. 

MOVIE REVIEW:

The Farrelly brothers, Peter and Bobby, built their careers on successful slapstick and crude comedies such as Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin and There’s Something About Mary, before Peter surprised everyone by directing the Oscar-winning Green Book. One might have thought that would strategically shift the brothers’ career path, but with the release of Dear Santa, that optimism quickly fades.

Dumped straight onto streaming with little to no marketing, Dear Santa stars Jack Black yes, that Jack Black of Tenacious D, School of Rock and Kung Fu Panda as Satan. A dyslexic sixth-grader, Liam Turner (Robert Timothy Smith, who also appears as Neel in Skeleton Crew), accidentally misspells “Santa” as “Satan” on his Christmas wishlist. That very night, Satan shows up at his doorstep.

Mistaking Satan for Santa, Liam accepts the deal when Satan offers to grant him three wishes in exchange for his soul. The first wish is a date with his school crush, Emma, and the second is to fix his best friend Gibby’s teeth.

There are faint traces of the Farrelly brothers’ familiar comedic trademarks, but they are largely lost in this low-budget, made-for-streaming affair. There is hardly a memorable gag in the entire film, and everyone involved seems to be cruising along for a paycheck. A prolonged fart joke involving a schoolteacher is probably the only juvenile or, more accurately, embarrassing moment that might leave you chuckling in disgust.

The film attempts to inject some emotional weight, with Liam trying to save his parents’ crumbling marriage, which we learn is rooted in the death of his brother. But hold your horses — the macabre turn the story takes is closer to Pet Sematary than to a heartfelt Christmas movie.

Of course, there is Jack Black doing his best to salvage the lacklustre material with his trademark enthusiasm. To be fair, he remains a ball of energy whenever he appears onscreen, but there is only so much he can do with such thin scripting. There is also an uncredited cameo by a certain big-name comedian, which ends up being just as wasted in this largely forgettable affair.

Neither funny nor particularly relevant to the festive season, Dear Santa is a missed opportunity considering the talent involved. Yes, Keegan-Michael Key and even Post Malone make appearances, but it barely helps. In short, the Farrelly brothers need to try harder instead of churning out something that feels far less inspired than even their ’90s output.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee