Sunday 16 December 2012

Nativity 2

Adorable kids sing, dance and laugh aplenty in this very british but VERY boring School of Rock take off.

Down with the kids teachers assistant Desmond (Marc Wooten) enters his class into a national choir competition against the will of his Head Teacher Aunt Mrs Bevan (Pam Ferris).

Enter straight laced Mr Peterson played by suave scot David Tennant. Tasked with replacing Martin Freeman's Middle Earth bound Mr Madden and boosting grades, he is also struggling with dad issues and the fear of the arrival of his first child.

As Desmond and a reluctant Mr Peterson strive to get to the squiffy kids to the competition in time, a rival school choir lead by Mr Shakespeare (Jason Watkins) battles the pomposity of Mr Peteson's twin brother Roderick (Tennant again).

The kids adore Desmond but parents watching may not. His Michael Jackson-esque big-kid vibe is as uncomfortable as it is unfunny.

This awkwardness pales in comparison compared to the awfully dubbed musical numbers. What should provide much needed relief from the painfully predictable narrative, the songs are so appalling that not even  a cute chubby kid breakdancing can save them.

Apart from the occasional smile caused by a foolish Mr Shakespeare and the delightful child actors, this is no place to find festive fun.

When the competition is finally over (have a guess who won) and the dad issues sorted ("I'm proud of you, son!"), you will be forgiven for thinking the lights were about to come on and you can get back to your Christmas shopping.

But as the title implies, there's a baby to be born in a stable.

As the two leads stumble clumsily around the screen for one final time, you will leave feeling more Scrooge than Santa.

Especially as the first one is only a fiver on DVD.

2 comments:

  1. Very nice Mr Lewis - keep 'em coming!
    I am curious though - obviously you are not it's target audience but do you think it would play well to the kiddies? And what does this mean for Tennant? He was pretty good in the Fright Night remake but I don't see him doing much in film worth noting...I utterly refuse to go out of my way to see him in St Trinians and certainly won't be seeing this!

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  2. Yeah I think steering clear of "comedies" would be a wise career move for him!

    However I disagree that I am not the target audience for this film. It is imperative that films of this genre entertain the adults who take the kids.

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