Jake is a college student how has been avoiding going home for Christmas, but when his father offers him the Porsche if he is back ready for dinner by 6pm on Christmas Eve he suddenly changes his mind, when he ends up stranded he must learn about not only himself but the true meaning of Christmas.
Nick had originally wanted to go away with his girlfriend Allie and changed his ticket to New York to a nice holiday. But when Allie refuses as she wants to spend time with her family having a traditional Christmas with snow considering they both go to college in California. When Nick tries to help out the jocks and it backfires they leave him in the desert dressed as Santa. He then must not only make it up to Allie but try and get back home for his prize. Along the way though as he meets people who aren't as fortunate as he is this sparks something and he finally realises why his father and sister wanted him home. He just could not cope with his stepmother after the death of his mother, something that is only mentioned a few times and not fully explored.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas most well-known for his role in Home Improvement and this film was towards the end of the show as he was older. He was charming enough and I am sure at the time this film had a pretty big audience of teenage girls. This was also one of the first roles for Jessica Biel which I thought was pretty interesting to watch considering the roles she has since gone on to play, and she started out in this Disney Christmas film.
In terms fo being a Christmas film it does try its best to have the Christmas spirit involved in it and at times it was a little bit too much. I seriously don't believe the holiday season does crazy things to people and makes them change. Something these types of films always try to claim. I guess this one being a Disney film it was always going to have even more of that forced into the overall film. Nothing was really a surprise and as you are probably already aware I cannot resist silly Christmas based films as much as I do not like or enjoy Christmas. Thought I would start early with this one as due to leave Sky Cinema on 31st October. I am now fully preparing for the new films we will be receiving from Netflix sometime in November!
