The Town That Banned Christmas (2006)

Awesome Movie

Absolutely brilliant

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

I love Christmas TV movies. This one my wife and I enjoyed, although the story line is similar to Deck The Halls which came out around the same time. The music score is superb and I contacted Peter Mazzeo who co wrote most of the songs asking if I could use use a couple on the community radio station where I was a presenter here in the UK. Peter sent me four songs and since that day in 2014 he and I have developed a very special long distant friendship. Although the movie was done on the cheap I think it did have some problems along the way, and certain people had to pull together to get the it completed. It is not the worst TV Christmas movie I have seen, but my wife and I still watch it. When it is scheduled I let Peter know "That Movie Is On Again" I am sure it still has it's fans. At least two here in the UK.

Strap yourself in, nobody - I think this is going to be a long one.Let me start by saying, the only other review of this movie (which cracked me up by the way so thanks for that mysterious stranger) commented on how it was the only review for the movie. That might be because this film has AT LEAST THREE titles. I bought a DVD in the 99p store under the name "The Town that Cancelled Christmas" - when I got it home and googled it to see if it was suitable for bad-movie- nights I found it was called "The Town that Banned Christmas"... and now lo and behold I find it on IMDb under the name "A Merry Little Christmas" (which makes sense because that phrase is featured in the film - and I'm guessing they were pressured to change it because there was an actual film that wanted to use that much more profitable name). Now, loser I may be, but even I draw the line at spending the evening scouring IMDb looking for alternate titles for the same goddamn film so this is just speculation. But I'm thinking this film may have different reviews scattered over between 3 and 13 different titles.I love cheaply turned-out Christmas films. I like getting all the Christmas spirit without any of the plot or characters, it cheers me right up after a few beers! But weirdly this doesn't seem like it fits that stereotype. It seemed both tongue-in-cheek and adorably earnest at the same time, and (I think?) I enjoyed it a lot. The reason I'm not sure is that I spent a lot of time tapping my foot and checking my watch, but when I did laugh (never at the intended jokes) I full on guffawed.There are too many things to say about this film so I'll try to keep it short(er than I would like)1) psychologist/ pop psych writer thinks that moving into neighbourhoods and pitting people against each other using their weaknesses is scientific. Like at one point our antihero is told "that guy has to have the best Christmas every year because he was raised by a strict grandmother who didn't let him celebrate it properly" and "this twitchy guy was forced into a career as a lawyer and secretly hates it so is addicted to pills" and -(although this obviously isn't a real dilemma but seriously) DotCom from 30 Rock is there grappling with the dilemma of "winning best Christmas display or telling everyone else to shut up because his wife is heavily pregnant"........ spoilers... the psych guy thinks this is all wonderful material despite living on a street full of mentally unbalanced men (and a single woman described as an old maid) and he thinks this will be remotely transferable to the actual real world.2) All the white people look the same except for Long-Suffering Wife, who (I think) is Ross's first wife from Friends? The blonde one? What started as cringing at the "oh heyyyyalll no" black guy turned into relief at spotting a character with a distinguishable feature (spoiler: he was black).3) The girl next door. She is literally a girl next door. She has no personality traits except "she got a 92 in biology" despite her parents being surprised at her being the library and all of her visible time in the library involves her flirting with psychologist's kid, Name. Ugh I dunno, probably Seth or Geordie or Oxbow or something.I gave this a 4/10, because I enjoy terrible movies and I knew what I could be getting myself into for 99p (for the American audience that's... I dunno.. $1.30 when I paid, more like $1 now.) Also part of the fun of watching terrible movies while drunk is the fun of reviewing them, which upped it from a 3/10. If you are a bad movie specialist, however, there is farrrr too much boring personal growth nonsense with (first wife from friends) acting quite well really, and clearly getting shitty direction on top of it. So you kind of feel sorry for her because I don't know maybe this seemed like a proper film at the time she started shooting. Also shoutout to the guy with the nervousness because I could see that he was trying to act too but was probably also being given shitty directions from changing angles and while his confusion is a wonder to behold, he may have actually had some acting chops and was just too disorientated to use them spinning round to different cameras.Also I could only identify him from the other white dark-haired actors because of his whiny voice which at first was irritating but then became something I could latch on to so I ended up very grateful to nervous guy, girl from Friends and guy from 30 rock because otherwise this would have looked like Reverse-Fight-Club.Aaaaand I'm done.

I can't believe that no one has taken the time or the effort to review this movie. So, I will.For every bad actor there is a bad film. For every failed punchline there is a moment of comedic bliss. You probably thought that I was going to draw some startling comparison between the two. Sorry. You know when you see a squirrel just about to be hit by a car? But, suddenly, like the squirrel had taken a yoga class for the past six months, it slips between the car tires and makes it out to the other side? You give a little cheer, right?Okay, so if you can't conjure up that image, how about this: You are a cat nip stuffer. A stuffer of cat nip. Not stuffing cat nip in untoward places, simply into balls. Or small candy cane shaped fluffy toys void of catnip. Your job is to fill cat nip into toys that you know are going to make one cat very, VERY happy. Feel good, right?What does this have to do with the movie?Nothing.Why do I mention it?My mom said, if you can't say anything good about something, say nothing at all.P.S. It could have been worse.