The Worst Film Ever

hyped garbage

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The first scenes of the annual Dr Who Christmas Special introduce the viewer to Nick Frost's guest turn as Santa Claus, complete with sledge, reindeer and two lippy elves but from there the story gets progressively darker, exploring the darker psyche of humanity as the Doctor, pleasingly reunited with Clara, lands at an Arctic scientific outpost where along with its four inhabitants, they find themselves in a waking dream scenario which threatens to kill them all.Writer Steven Moffat nods at various sci-fi / horror classic films of yesteryear, notably "Alien", "Nightmare on Elm Street", "Inception" even "Ghostbusters" as well as Christmas films "A Christmas Carol" and "The Santa Clause" and weaves a densely layered tale which takes a bit of following, but like Santa on Christmas Eve, gets there in the end.As one would imagine Santa Frost and his two impish assistants get the majority of the funny lines (when asked how he can deliver so many Christmas presents from a single sled, he knowingly counters "Bigger on the inside" and otherwise becomes the seasonal focus of the group's thought processes to thwart the Dream Crab's life-threatening menace. There were some neat touches in the story like Clara's death-prophesying blackboard and the way the Doctor uses random book-reading to alert them to their danger although some other devices were unnecessary in my opinion, most notably the "return" of Danny Pink into Clara's life and the once too often used collective resistance to break the monsters' spell.With barely any day-light shots and being even more set-bound than usual, this Dr Who tale effectively builds up its claustrophobic atmosphere of life-threatening dread until the bearded weirdie in red comes along to save the day. There's an interesting diversion near the end as the Doctor visits a much older Clara from 60 years in the future to play out a blame-and-redemption tete-a-tete before he saves the (Christmas) day and hooks up again with Clara in the TARDIS, just in time for the next series.This wasn't the best Dr Who Christmas special I've seen but had its moments and definitely deserved its prime-time slot on the Christmas schedules.

In the opening scenes Clara looks out of her window to see Father Christmas and a pair of elves arguing about whether people like tangerines. She is of course rather surprised to meet somebody she hasn't believed in since she was a child but soon stops worrying about that when The Doctor turns up. Meanwhile at the North Pole something distinctly unchristmassy is going on… scientists are investigating an attack by strange telepathic creatures that will attack if you so much as think about them. Inevitably The Doctor and Clara turn up, shortly followed by Father Christmas and they start to understand the terrifying truth about the creatures they are dealing with… they are not struggling against them; they have already lost and the creatures are slowly eating them while creating a dream state to distract their victims! Each time they think they've woken and thus prevailed they realise it was just a dream within a dream… will they ever truly wake up?The trailers for this episode managed to lower my expectations substantially… the idea of an episode featuring Father Christmas seemed just a bit too twee. The opening scenes suggested my fears were correct but then we were introduced to the 'Dream Crabs'; possibly the scariest monster to feature since the Weeping Angels. The plot was clearly inspired by well-known horror film; most notably 'Alien' and 'Nightmare on Elm Street'; a link that was clearly acknowledged at the end; there are also obvious similarities to 'Inception' with the dreams within dreams. While this featured nothing as scary as the two horror films it was scarier than one might expect for a family show; especially one aired on Christmas Day. I can't say if it was too scary for younger viewers but for me it was just about right. It wasn't just the concept of the monsters that was scary; they looked scary too. Overall this proved to be much better than I expected.

Yes it was cheesy but thankfully never ridiculous or worse still outright stupid. Essentially it was what a Doctor Who Christmas special episode should be, and a far cry from the cartoonist plots and scenes that I felt dragged down much of the Tennant era, and threatened the enjoyment of Matt Smiths version - although he at least seemed to carry off the 'Scooby-Doo- esque' comedy much more naturally. Peter Capaldi finishes his first season with head held high.Peter Capaldi's one flaw is he sometimes comes across as too dour, but fortunately his acting prowess overcomes the urge to shout at the TV regarding his attitude - although its close at times. I had expected the lifting of some of the burden following the 'Day of the Doctor' episode but again he spends too long seeking the negatives - but I don't blame the actor alone, he only interprets the scripts...thank goodness for Jenna Colemans down to earth and generally positive Claro Oswald. Another fine set of acting.Nick Frost as was also good as Santa Claus, however he would have come to naught without his wisecracking Elf's who probably had the best moments and lines. Maybe not overly funny throughout, and certainly questionable as to whether it was full of Christmas spirit, I am at least glad to say what true humour there was did hit the mark - and so did the downers.It's already been said the episode feels like a combination of the Alien and Inception and I don't doubt these subconsciously played a part somewhere in its writing, and for the majority of the viewing it worked well - right up until the last twists and turns which I at least felt was almost too easy to figure out in advance. Sorry Doctor you lose a star for signposting once too often!So overall not a bad effort, and I feel Dr Who has bounced back well after going through a 'not essential viewing, I'll wait for the repeat' phase. Once again I automatically set the EPG for it above other programmes rather than umming and arr'ing...Now please Mr/Mrs writers...just lift The Doctors spirits a little and be kind to is poor folk who looks to smile occasionally without having to take a happy pill! (Another -1 star for too much annoyingly negativity)

It starts out promisingly with Santa crashed on Clara's roof and moves rapidly downhill.Referencing Alien, blue facehuggers (although they seem more like Halflife's headcrabs) as Dream crabs that can cause inception like layers of dreams. The episode was supposed to be scary. Not a bit of it. Some kids may be disturbed by the Dream crabs and the scariest bit was of course Clara getting attacked.Throughout this Santa Claus is used as a Deus Ex Machina to rescue the cast.The ending though sappy was the best bit of the episode aside from Santa's sarcastic elves in the first few minutes.Avoid!