Its Christmas yet again on this list it does come around a lot quicker than the real one huh!! Well this 2009 British comedy was made with a budget of $2.4m and it was very much British movie so its box-office return would of mainly come from the UK so a $8.5m return was pretty good. This one isn’t entering the scoring of the Tri-Critic Scoreboard as it was liked by the IMDb mob with a 6.4/10 IMDb but really wasn’t liked by the Rotten Tomatoes critics who gave it an under half score of 46%. It stars a list of British finest including
Martin Freeman, Marc Wootton, Ashley Jensen, Jason Watkins, Alan Carr, Pam Ferris & Ricky Tomlinson.
Paul Maddens is a failed actor that had decided to turn his hand to teaching and works in the St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School in Coventry. Every Christmas the school competes with a local Protestant private school over who produces the best Nativity play. Paul also hates Christmas because he was dumped at Christmas. With his background he is tasked with producing the Nativity play to compete this year. He also gets assigned a new teaching assistant called Mr Poppy who is not the sharpest tool in the box but the kids love him. The teacher of the rival school goads Paul into boasting about his ex being a great Hollywood producer who will turn their little school show into a big screen movie. Mr Poppy overhears the lie and tells all the kids about it and promises to put on the most dramatic and fantastic show ever. With the talent pool in this school much lower than the rival, a promise that is made up of a lie, a rival teacher that has the skills but has been there before and won the trophy, an ex who knows nothing of this deal and is also just a pa of one the producers. This really isn’t going to come together is it.
As an actor Martin Freeman always gives a hundred percent even in movies I didn’t like he has always done well. Looking at World’s End, The Hobbit and the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy he is someone I like. In this small budget British movie again he gives it the beans and makes this run of the mill comedy very entertaining. Mr Poppy’s character is loveable madness but loveable. He is great with the kids and sometimes in a school that is all you need. The cheese here is as expected and there is plenty of it stacked nice and high which may explain the low Tomatoes score as it is very British with British sense of humour which may not be appreciated by American critics tastes. It has enough to keep you smiling and maybe leans on the happy joy of it being Christmas. Go on let your hair down and enjoy it.
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