Fatman (2020)
You know the man. You know the legend. But you don't know the real story.
Festive spirit for the festive day - well, sort of. It’s got Santa in it, but it sure ain’t for kids. Christmas and Santa makes it a Christmas movie in my book - but perhaps it doesn’t have the same level of cheer some people would require. Still, perhaps we’ll have an interesting take on the old man winter. Grab your cookies and heat up some milk, tonight we venture out take a peak at the Fatman.
Christmas is fast approaching, and we get introduced to a kid who you immediately dislike - at first I have a feeling it may be because he’s rich and there’s just a hard-coding that when you see someone being all posh and uppity like that it hackles the old nerves. Turns out, a few moments later we don’t like the kid because he’s just a detestable kid - using a hitman to kidnap a class mate who beat him in a science project and threatening to use shock torture on her if she doesn’t say she cheated so the first place will go to him instead. Through him we get to see the hitman, who has a weird obsession with toys from Santa. He’s a weird one, but for sure has no problem with killing folks for cash with no remorse. Santa does his thing, leaving the kid with a lump of coal, wihch causes the little brat to hire the hitman to go kill Santa. Meanwhile, Santa is kind of dealing with his own problems, like government subsidations not being what they used to be.
The plot can be perhaps a bit goofy at times - which most of the time makes it more entertaining - but it does facilitate everything. I mean, if we have Santa Clause being Santa there’s only so much you can have in there for “realism” you know? Actors do a great job here, even if I’m sure there would be some who would complain about a person or another - I know Mel is a bit of a mixed bag for people for whatever reason. Still, I think him and all the miain cast do a pretty great job. I mean, you hate the kid within seconds of him being on screen, so he absolutely nails the crappy little rich kid stereotype. The assassin is incredibly weird, and who better for a weird bad guy the Goggins? Even Mel gets to do some fine work here, playing a range from disgruntled and sore Cringle all the way up to more cheerful and jolly. Nothing in here really makes you feel like performances are being phoned in.
The characters are likewise done enough. There’s some conflict in old Cringle, so he gets to have somewhat of an arc or at least feeling more like an actual person instead of just a normal stereotype. The hitman is incredibly weird, and although his logic is a bit generic especially considering the weirdness of the character it does work and give him more than just “hitman for hitman sake” background character. Of the main crew, the kid is probably the weakest. but at the same time that’s not to downplay his little crap-head persona having at least some daddy issues in the background as a foundation to make him more than just a rich snob. It’s honestly a little more than what I expected, so that’s nice - but I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s anything outside the expected in an action movie situation, even perhaps a little bit more than the standard Christmas fare.
The Clause’s
The setting is pretty modern day, so you do have the side effects that come with it. Costumes are good, but very what you’d expect so they won’t stand out like a fancy costume would. That said, Santa has few costumes that do play out more festive while still being rooted in modern times. The environmental settings is all pretty run of the mill as well, but varied enough. The fanciest spot would be the workshop, but even then it’s not too crazy. We do have some gunshots in here, and a few explosions even, but most the effects work is pretty mundane as well. It all looks good, Even the elves aren’t too overly crazy with their design - but again it all plays out well on the screen and comes across believable.
It’s certainly not the kind of Santa movie for kids, and it does have some extra stuff in there that would be rather depressing for most folks - you know, like talking about taxes and bills. On the bright side, that does mean the thinking types will have more to think about then the regular holiday movie. Granted, that kind of stuff is still in there, so you won’t miss out on the classic “be good for goodness sake.” Again, doing what you gotta do to keep the workshop running isn’t the normal for Christmas - nor is the body count and revenge-paid hitman against Santa, but the commentary on how kids are getting worse or society is getting worse isn’t something that is unknown to holiday movies.
Audio is fine. Deliveries do well, and helps give a sense of chemistry between characters. I know there was a bunch of different songs in there, but classically me forgets most of it by the time it’s over. The entire thing does go together well, and comes off quite entertaining, but given that it’s a bit of a grittier take it’s not going to be replacing to many holiday movies for the family gatherings. It does some fun things throughout the movie, including a fun montage with the hitman as he’s closing in on Santa’s workshop. I also enjoy a good deal of the interactions between the army and elves, as it tends to have a bit of a more whimsical feeling and can be far less serious then a lot of the rest of the movie. For the most part, I think that whimsical is probably more what people are looking for in a holiday movie - such as why Home Alone has done so well over the years. Now, admittedly I do also enjoy Violent Night, which is a similar sort of disgruntled Santa scenario that tries to play things more realistic despite having some magic, but the situations are slightly different still given one’s a purposeful assault on Santa and the other is a more Die Hard style wrong spot at the wrong time kind of thing.
Naughty list
I had enough fun with this one. I can see where some might not like it, but it has plenty of moments that reinforced the fun I thought I would have based on the description of the film. If you saw a trailer or read the blurb for it on the box and though it sounded good, you probably won’t have any regret. If you wanted a more cheerful barrage of fun then you might not be as excited althuogh it does still have some fun and cheerful moments in it. If you wanted the story of a bad kid instead of a good kid, then it could be a good option for you.