DEAR SANTA (2024) - Movie Review

Director: Bobby Farrelly
Starring: Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Robert Timothy Smith, Brianne Howey, Hayes MacArthur, Post Malone, P. J. Byrne
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
Writer: Ricky Blitt, Jack Black, Peter Farrelly
Runtime: 103 min
Rated: PG-13 for some language and suggestive material
Buy This Movie: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV

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Synopsis:

When a young boy mails his Christmas wish list to Santa with one crucial spelling error, a devilish Jack Black arrives to wreak havoc on the holidays. From the hilarious minds behind DUMB & DUMBER, Christmas is about to go up in flames.

Review:

A Christmas letter accidentally addressed to Satan (Jack Black) instead of Santa due to a spelling error brings about a wish-granting demonic presence into the life of a dyslexic sixth-grader with family and school issues. The premise supports endless possibilities but the comedy directed by Bobby Farrelly and co-written by his brother Peter Farrelly misses almost every opportunity, resulting in a holiday comedy drained of all charm, humor and emotion.

It's painful to think this is the team that brought us classics like "Dumb and Dumber" and "There's Something About Mary". The Farrelly's have always walked a fine line between raunchy, offensive and hilarious, a brand of comedy that they seem to have drifted away from, or perhaps they've simply lost their touch. Even Bobby Farrelly's 2024 comedy "Ricky Stanicky" which aimed to be a return to risqué form turned out to be a pale memory of the filmmaker's comedic glory days.

I couldn't help but think of Tim Burton's "Beetlejuice" and how much keeping Michael Keaton's screen time limited helped it stay fresh and entertaining all the way through. Jack Black is a wonderful comedian, but the movie makes the mistake that Burton avoided, which is overloading the movie with Black's presence, thus losing its novelty and fun well before the halfway mark. What's worse is that all the other characters are entirely uninteresting. The movie is also tediously long, and should have been at least 15 minutes shorter.

The main culprit here is the poor writing, which apparently required three scribes. The dialogue is forced, unfunny and unnatural, especially the lines spoken by the kids. The concept of Satan wreaking havoc on the holidays is completely wasted, as is the contrast resulting from the interplay between mean-spiritedness and holiday charm. I kept thinking about how well "Bad Santa" played with these similar concepts and managed to extract something poignant out of the darkness and raunch.

"Dear Santa" does absolutely nothing with a premise that could have been comedy gold. It's neither edgy, nor charming, a comedic failure in every possible way, and yet another in a long line of 2024 Christmas duds.

SCORE: 5/10