Because it was on Netflix and I needed a film to fill the gap between now and the Twelve Days of Nick’s Flixmas (which will officially start on the 14th since I’m considering Christmas Day as a part of this rather than end it on the 24th like a sane person), day twelve is a blast to the early 90s (in case you had forgotten it was the 90s there’s a Smash Mouth poster) with Disney’s I’ll Be Home For Christmas, starring Johnathan Taylor Thomas…a guy that was big for a few years and the suddenly disappeared with the other Home Improvement children.
It’s definitely not as good as Tom & Huck or The Lion King, but it’s got a mid 7th Heaven Jessica Biel and that’s always good. Oh and Christmas is there too, I guess.
[Nick’s Flixmas is a 25 day celebration of films Nick watches every Christmas! Nick will do some analysis, review, and just generally walk down memory lane. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the ride. Merry Flixmas!]
Early/late 90s live action Disney films were always entertaining in a variety of ways. Most of the time they got away with language and darker things that you can’t find in current era Disney (one guy calls Mrs. Claus a “ho,” there’s a naked guy). Might’ve been my young age, but I enjoyed these films a lot and I still don’t really know why. But watching Home For Christmas is like walking into a time machine. It’s super 90s. It’s been a looooong time since I’d seen it, so I had forgotten all the references. There’s that referenced Smash Mouth poster, some awful techno babble song, and JTT essentially plays Zack Morris in a Christmas movie.
What do I mean by Zack Morris? Well JTT is a little jerk of a con man who manipulates the people around him in order to get his way. He goes to college on his parents money, has celebrated any holidays with them and it makes them sad, he lies directly to many people’s faces, and he still gets the happy ending with Jessica Biel. It’d be a different story if his journey across the United States forced him to change (which it kind of did), but the whole thing feels forced. What? It’s Christmas so everything has to be lovey dovey? You try watching the film and see how quickly everyone excepts JTT! It’s so sad. The manipulation, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaan
Whoa got a bit off track there. At least it’s over. Johnathan Taylor Thomas, I miss you. Come back to us. Tomorrow is the last filler day before the Twelve Days of Flixmas.
So, uh, what to watch…uhhhhhhhhhhhhh…Santa Buddies?
