Awesome Movie

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Blistering performances.

Sadly this was just not good, disappointing because its one of the last movies Robin Williams gave to us. The plot is dull, rehashed and uninspired and I didn't enjoy Robin Williams character at all. He is grumpy, angry and shouting but not in a Clarke Griswold I just lost it over the Christmas lights and had a meltdown and we can all relate sort of way. Williams just seems bitter. In fact this whole family of "misfits" just yells at each other in a very unappealing way, with Candice Bergen bumbling along in the role of the mother.Joel McHale does a decent enough job as Boyd Mitchler, a man overcompensating for his own failed childhood. When he forgets his Christmas gifts at home while visiting his parents he embarks on an 8-hour road trip with his estranged father in order to get them under the tree in time for the big day.I did like some of the sub characters; drunken "got any brandy" Santa (Oliver Platt) and Clarke Duke as the PTSD "suffering" sidekick. Ultimately this was harmless, mildly entertaining and completely forgettable. 12/25/14

Joel McHale plays Boyd, a hipster hedge-fund-managing dad raising a macrobiotic-diet-eating hipster family who finds he'll be visiting his cigar-smoking alcoholic dad (played by the late, great Robin Williams) at Christmas.His brother, Nelson (or Nelly, as dad calls him) is a "war" veteran, having sustained a head injury after falling out the back of a humvee in basic training. He, too, bears the thick-rimmed glasses and bow tie characteristic of a hipster. Nelly, having recently become a father to a Mexican infant boy, shows classy parenting as he blends a bean burrito with some milk while on the phone with Boyd, then feeds this concoction to the infant who seems to eagerly anticipate it.Boyd's sister is white trash and is married to a convicted sex offender with a stupid bowl haircut who has a fondness for Old Milwaukee beer. They've raised two adorable white trash children, one who's an eating competition champ, another who's into 80s-style fashion and likes making YouTube videos of herself shaking her ass for the internet.The stabs at humor are painful at best. I've got to wonder if Robin Williams' expression of his character mirrored his last, dark days. I couldn't make it through the whole movie in part for this reason.It's for the compassionate Wisconsin state trooper character (who lets the speeding characters go in spite of being flipped off by Boyd, in favor of calling it a night to be with his family) is responsible for the star above 1 I give this miserably predictable flick.

If you ever had the intense desire to see what Robin Williams would be like if he played a character that channeled Archie Bunker, then you might have your wish granted by the comedy A Merry Friggin' Christmas. Yet, before you run off to see this, it might be kind to inform you that the concept is not quite up to its comedic possibilities. This is a dull, mean-spirited comedy about a family that gets together at Christmas, they fight, they scream, they hate each other, and their basic demeanor is about as warm as a jar full of hornets. Yet, we're supposed to like them.That idea, in other hands, might make for a great comedy. A Merry Friggin' Christmas is about as far from a great comedy as one can get, and is further deadened by the realization that this is one of the last films that Robin Williams worked on before he left us. There are only a finite number of his films left unreleased and it's really heartbreaking to watch him waste his gifts in a performance that has him playing a nasty old crank seated in his favorite chair, chomping on a cigar, sucking back the whiskey and reminding his family for the umpteenth time that HIS name is on the mortgage of this friggin' house! His name is Mitch Mitchler. He's an alcoholic who's been a constant source of disappointment since his kids were in diapers. In flashbacks, Mitch dispels questionable words of wisdom by telling his kids, "The only road to heaven is to realize there's no road to heaven." That's before his lays the hard truth on them about Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny and The Tooth Fairy. Did you forget that this was a comedy? By this point in the movie, it's not unreasonable.Actually (or rather mercifully) Robin is not the center of things. Our focus is given over to comedian Joel McHale in a serviceable performance as Mitch's son Boyd, a reasonably good-hearted dad whose goal in life is to spend the rest of his life being Mitch's exact opposite as a father. He has a lovely wife named Luanne and two kids, Vera and Douglas. As Christmas approaches, he makes himself the stated goal that he wants to give his 8 year-old son a Christmas that he will remember for the rest of his life. That's fine until Boyd drives the family 300 miles to his parent's house and realizes at the 11th hour that he's left his son's presents back at the house. That means that he has a very short window in which to drive back to his house, retrieve the presents, and be back home before the kid wakes up.Yes, this is a road movie, and yes that means his disapproving father has to travel with him. Why? Because then we wouldn't have a movie. What follows is not so much a narrative but a long series of wacky episodes involving car chases, slapstick, one-liners and offensive stereotypes. There's a cringe-worthy subplot about illegal Mexicans and Afhanis. There's an unfunny running gag about a drunk Santa Claus played by a usually delightful Oliver Platt. And there's the usual nonsense in which the family screams hateful insults at one another in a manner that, I guess, we're suppose to find funny. Then the movie moves into a third act in which we're suppose to feel for the characters because they give each other warm looks and the soundtrack cues our emotions.You feel bad when this movie is over. You feel bad for the actors. You feel bad for anyone suckered into this movie. You feel bad for being there. Whatever happened to movies in which families like each other? When the warmth of the holidays brought people together with good will and cheer why do we need a movie like this? This is the most wonderful time of the year. So why are we given a movie this friggin' unpleasant?

I am not sure why so many reviews were under the 5 out of 10 IMDb rating. But I really liked this illustration of a typical dysfunctional family get together for the Holidays. I would think most everyone has their own version of some wacky anecdotes that happen during the Holidays. Whether it is about Christmas or Thanksgiving. Of course trying to keep it together for Christmas is definitively important in this movie or story. Again, I really think there are a lot of poignant little issues brought up with this ensemble of pretty good actors. This brings back a lot of weird family memories that I am fairly sure many of us can share. I love it when Lauren and Candice get drunk reminiscing and looking for presents in the attic. If anyone was cast wrongly I think it may have been Robin. He has a tough time playing a grumpy ass dad if you ask me. Although when he realized that he was an ass all his life... his demeanor changed showing the real Robin again. Not a great movie to remember him by but it's still a treat to watch the comic master one more time.