Natale a 5 stelle

This is as much a Christmas movie as Die Hard is. Do you know the difference?

If you take the movie events out of a Christmas context, will the movie still "work"? If the answer is yes, then it's not a Christmas movie.

12 minutes into the movie I was checking my phone. 23 minutes into the movie I thought about turning it off. 75 minutes into the movie I've given up on it being good and started writing this review.

This movie is funny to some degree but it's "plot" and comedy seem better suited to a stage, maybe vaudeville. Why? Because 75% of the movie occurs in one hotel room or another. It's slapstick irreverent comedy that's just not all that funny. The reason it might get any views at all is because it's listed as a Christmas movie and it just isn't - there's nothing central to the movie that requires it to be Christmas time.

It's meant to be funny and I suppose on some level it is but I find it difficult to laugh about a movie when it's two primary characters (a PM and opposing party member from Italy) are trying to engage in an affair while in Budapest for political meetings.

As much as I like beautiful women, the blonde lead was parading around in a bra and panties in a hotel room for about 15 minutes early in the film, as beautiful as she was, her state of undress was not pivotal to the plot either. Later, a sandy blonde woman was in a nightie then yet another woman with a pixie cut was in a nightie. It's meant to add to the humor but it just doesn't.

This movie felt like a cross between the old school European soft pron movies on late night Cinemax and a three stooges movie. It did neither particularly well.

Skip it. Skip it. Skip it.