A Merry Friggin’ Christmas (2014)
A Christmas film with Robin Williams in it? Must be good, right? Well, no. Not according to those who saw it. With a rather unnecessary expletive in the title, the formula seems trite to the nth degree - a road trip back home between a man and his estranged father to collect forgotten Christmas presents.
Critics seemed unanimous that blame could not be laid at the feet of the actors.
Rotten Tomatoes ratings
Tomatometer: 14%
Audience Score: 21%
IMDB rating
5.1/10
Metacritic rating
28
A slipshod comedy with Williams in default mode as a lovable grouch. A waste of a once-brilliant star. said Rafer Guzman of
Newsday, an opinion backed up by Geoff Berkshire of
Variety, who said
The makers of "A Merry Friggin' Christmas" sprung for the fancy wrapping but skimped on the gift inside. How else to explain the gathering of such a talented and likable cast in service of such undercooked, utterly laugh-free material?
Andrew Daley of
One Room With a View was harsher:
Time-worn jokes and Christmas cliches inhibit any form of innovation, resulting in a film of all round mediocrity.
And Nicholas Bell of
IONCINEMA agreed:
A Merry Friggin' Christmas is just too F'in lazy and milquetoast to register as more than mere background noise
EFilmCritic’s Rob Gonsalves felt
sorry for Williams who shuffles around looking angry and depressed - more so than the script would justify.
But David Nusair of
Reel Film Reviews had two words to describe it:
Inconsequential and forgettable…
No respite from the audiences either.
With a paper-thin plot and an incredible cast that is given next to nothing to do, this film does get pretty tired, has it's moments, but is ultimately a dull, poorly lit Christmas film. Mediocre at best!
May he rest in peace, but it's no secret that Robin Williams' film choices after Good Will Hunting simply didn't match his best work. Terrible movie, at least it's super short, no more than 73 minutes at the most. It's not painless, but at least it's over quick.