Wham! bam, no thank you ma’am!
Strictly is in full flow, I’m A Celebrity is just under way, the shops are getting busier and now the first big festive flick of the winter is here – yep, Christmas really is coming.
Loosely based on the titular Wham! song, Paul Feig directs from a script by Emma Thompson and Greg Wise that tells the story of unlucky-in-love Kate (Emilia Clarke) and the department store elf’s budding relationship with Tom (Henry Golding).
The London setting and familiar plot beats make Last Christmas feel like a rejected Richard Curtis rom-com.
Thompson, who also stars as Kate’s mum Petra, clearly took a lot on board from her Love Actually director as much of the humour is pure Curtis – and token attempts to sprinkle in real-world current affairs (Brexit) are made.
Wham! fans will get a kick out of the familiar tunes which, along with Golding’s performance, are the best things in the movie.
Feig has a proven track record in comedy (Bridesmaids, Spy, The Heat) but the only part of Last Christmas that truly tickles the funny bone is Michelle Yeoh’s festive fanatic Santa –yep, that’s really her name.
It doesn’t help that Clarke – an actress who continues to do nothing to impress me – fails miserably any time she’s required to be comedic.
Golding is charming and tries his very best to create Christmas chemistry with Clarke but there’s less heat than in an Eskimo’s fridge.
And while, of course, I won’t reveal what it is here, the movie’s big twist is so predictable it’ll give you false confidence to put an extra lottery ticket or long-shot bet on this weekend.
It’s a twist that also awakens what should be unwanted comparisons with other festive favourites.
Feig’s worst film yet, Last Christmas doesn’t save you from tears – not out of sadness, but over how frustratingly average the whole experience is.
This sequel has more spirits than you can shake a cross at but there are more misses than hits.
The script spends too much time on set-up and things we don’t care about, like a teenybopper romance,