A very merry Christmas
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | A very merry Christmas |
| Original title | A Merry Friggin 'Christmas |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2014 |
| length | 81 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Tristram Shapeero |
| script | Michael Brown |
| production | Ben Nearn Tom Rice |
| music | Ludwig Göransson |
| camera | Giovanni Lampassi |
| cut | Christian Kinnard |
| occupation | |
Terribly Merry Christmas (Original title: A Merry Friggin 'Christmas , or A Friggin' Christmas Miracle ) is an American comedy film directed by Tristram Shapeero from 2014. The film shows Robin Williams in one of his last roles. At Christmas of all times, in his role as Virgil Mitchler, he and his son Boyd, played by Joel McHale , have a father-son duel. Lauren Graham can be seen as Boyd's wife Luann.
action
As a child, Boyd Mitchler was deprived of all belief in Santa Claus by his father, who was disaffected by the Vietnam War . That's why he wants to do it differently with his two children. While his daughter no longer believes in Santa Claus, his son Douglas is still full of imagination and Boyd is doing everything in his power to keep the illusions he associates with Christmas alive for as long as possible. If Boyd could, he would let it snow for Christmas, which is almost impossible given the current climate situation. A phone call from his brother Nelson suddenly messes up the holiday plans. Nelson wants to have his newborn son baptized with his family on Christmas Eve of all times. And so happens what Boyd has been avoiding for years: he has to spend the holidays with his father Virgil, a bad-tempered man with a very idiosyncratic family spirit.
Boyd has made up his mind to come to terms with his busy family, but already at dinner there is the first argument. And it gets even worse. Boyd left Douglas' present in her home hundreds of miles away. His wife Luann suggests buying something new, but Boyd is determined to go back. He has eight hours before the children wake up, which is actually sufficient. Too bad his car went on strike as soon as he drove off. When he calls his mother, she sends him, of all people, his father to help him. Since the car can't be repaired anytime soon, Mitch suggests that they drive back to Illinois with his van . The mobile toilets that Mitchler rents out commercially are still on the back of the car. In one of them they find Boyd's brother Nelson, who fell asleep there because he had drunk a little too much.
All three arrive at Boyd's house late at night. He is amazed when he meets an extended family from Afghanistan on the floor of his living room. It turns out that one of his wife's students misunderstood the term house sitting . Annoyed, Boyd calls his wife, who can't understand his excitement. Since she fears that Boyd will not make it back with the present in time, she and her mother-in-law look for a possible alternative in the attic.
Virgil Mitchler is amazed at the comfortable house his son built all by himself, and he's a little proud of Boyd too. However, he is amazed when he sees a photo on the wall that Boyd has retouched him - his father - out of the photo. When he speaks to Boyd about it on the way back in the car, he has to hear that his son was ashamed that his father was wearing his dirty "rental toilet T-shirt" in a family photo. Inevitably, an argument follows in which the two accuse each other of what they would hate about the other. Boyd so intensifies his hatred that he begins to behave like his father and inadvertently holds up a mirror to him.
Mitchler begins to understand all the things he has done wrong with his children. When Boyd runs over a man in a Santa suit in his rage, as he believes, his father offers him to take the blame. Fortunately, the man is not dead, but alive and well. He even looks familiar to Boyd, because he had run into him in the last few hours at a gas station where he had told him something that reminded him of his childhood. Since the delivery van is no longer roadworthy, "Santa Claus" offers the three fellow workers his snowmobile so that they can get home on time. There the children have just woken up and are looking for their presents from under the Christmas tree. Douglas doesn't find anything for himself, but is delighted when he receives a very large package from Santa Claus because the four men on the snowmobile have just arrived. Douglas unwraps his present, but is not at all thrilled to find a sledge because there is no snow. But as if by a miracle, it starts to snow shortly afterwards.
production
Production notes, budget
It is a production by Sycamore Pictures. The outdoor shots were taken in March 2013 on Stone Mountain, a large granite boulder near Stone Mountain , in Georgia and in Gwinnett County , a state in Georgia.
After the death of Robin Williams, the originally intended ending of the film was changed again to make the film a homage and honor for Williams. Details of how the re-cut version differs from the original are not known.
The film had an estimated budget of $ 5 million.
Soundtrack
- It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Edward Pola and George Wyle, Lecture: Rufus Wainwright
- Santa Will Be Flying Over the Moon by and with Anna Su
- Why We Love by and with Ben Kweller
- Jingle Bells by James Lord Pierpont , Lecture: Chuck Mead
- Devil In You by Paul Mars Black and David Walsh, Lecture: Paul Mars Black and Black Cherry
- Angels From the Realm of Glory by James Montgomery and Henry Smart, Lecture: The California Feetwarmers
- Shake That Ass Bitch by Sean Terrell Chavis, Lecture: Splack Pack
- Best Time of Year by and with Alex Rhodes
- Silent Night by Franz Xaver Gruber and Joseph Mohr , Lecture: Aaron Tippin
- Going Home This Christmas by Barbara Gruska and Ethan Gruska, Lecture: The Belle Brigade feat. Samantha Sidley
- The Weather Outside by and with Spencer Shapeero
- It's Christmastime, I Know (Ho Ho Ho) by Neilson Hubbard and Ryan Culwell, talk: Ryan Culwell
- Up on the Housetop by Benjamin Hanby, Lecture: The California Feetwarmers
- Gentle, Mary Laid Her Child by Joseph S. Cook and William Moore, Lecture: John Isaac Watters feat. Alex Rhodes
- Christmas is for Kids by and with Rufus Wainwright
- Patches by Ron Dunbar and General N. Johnson, Lecture: Clarence Carter
- More Than I Wished For by Tim Meyers and Schuyler Fisk , Lecture: FM Radio
Cast and dubbing
| actor | role | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Joel McHale | Boyd Mitchler | Norman Matt |
| Robin Williams | Virgil "Mitch" Mitchler | Bodo Wolf |
| Lauren Graham | Luann Mitchler | Melanie Pukass |
| Clark Duke | Nelson Mitchler | Fabian Hollwitz |
| Oliver Platt | Hobo Santa | Uwe Jellinek |
| Wendi McLendon-Covey | Shauna Weinke | Silvia Missbach |
| Tim Heidecker | Dave Weinke | Tommy Morgenstern |
| Candice Mountains | Donna Mitchler | Isabella Grothe |
| Pierce Gagnon | Douglas Mitchler | Jaron Müller |
| Bebe Wood | Vera Mitchler | Milena Rybiczka |
| Ryan Lee | Rance Weinke | Sebastian Fitzner |
| Amara Miller | Pam Weinke | Viktoria Waldau |
| Jeffrey Tambor (voice) | Snowman in the ball | Sebastian Christoph Jacob |
| Mark Proksch | Zblocki, police officer | Rainer Fritzsche |
| Amir Arison | Farhad | Christoph Banks |
| Gene Jones | Glen | Klaus Lochthove |
publication
On October 17, 2014, the film was presented at the Carmel International Film Festival in California. It opened in select cinemas in the United States on November 7, 2014 and in Canada on November 22, 2014. In December 2014, it premiered on DVD in the UK, the Netherlands and Sweden. It was released in Brazil on December 25, 2014. It also had its DVD premiere in Spain and Hungary in December 2015. It has also been published in Australia, Bulgaria, Finland, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal and Russia.
On November 14, 2015, Universal Pictures Germany GmbH released the film with a German soundtrack on DVD.
criticism
In Germany, Feartbar Happy Christmas was released in November 2015 on DVD and not in cinemas. In the opinion of the critics of kino-zeit.de, this is “understandable” because “On the one hand, Michael Brown's script does not give the actors enough opportunity to use their full potential. In this gathering of loners, Boyd's sister Shauna (Wendi McLendon-Covey) and her husband Dave (Tim Heidecker) get stuck in the stereotype of the uncouth lower-class family. As Boyd's brother Nelson, Clark Duke once again only offers the caricature of one character in his young career. On the other hand, Joel McHale is not an actor for the big screen format. For the cinema it simply lacks presence. "
Variety said the film was neither warm nor fluffy, as is traditionally often the case in Christmas films, but that it also has no rough edges as in the black comedy Bad Santa . So it remains a mystery which audience should feel addressed by the film.
Web links
- Terribly happy Christmas in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Merry Christmas in the online film database
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for a terribly merry Christmas . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , September 2015 (PDF; test number: 154 023 V).
- ↑ A Merry Friggin 'Christmas sS filmstarts.de
- ↑ A very Merry Christmas. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on March 11, 2018 .
- ↑ A terribly merry Christmas - Christmas is no picnic Fig. Universal DVD case (in the picture: Robin Williams, Joel McHale)
- ↑ Falk Straub: Terribly Merry Christmas - Schöne Bescherung Film review at kino-zeit.de, accessed on December 19, 2018.
- ↑ Geoff Berkshire: A Merry Friggin 'Christmas In: Variety , November 9, 2014 (English). Retrieved December 19, 2018.
