User reviews

Watch this movie before you read some of the moronic reviews below. They are filled with racists and people complaining about racism and those who clearly need the plot spelt out for them. People look for all the flaws instead of enjoying a movie and I feel sad for their lives

Over-all good but not great. it is deff, feel good but leaves questions at the end.

6.4

Quite a cute film overall, that labours a little in the middle, then rushes to an end with no closure for some actors. The part I would find scary would be trapped in a lift with Shawn King, as her face frankly terrifies me. Patrick Stewart's dialogue was shockingly limited and poorly written, maybe he filmed it in a couple of days then got on with something else.

I say "ultimately" watchable because halfway through you will question yourself as to why you are wasting your time, but if, like me, you persevere you will be rewarded.

It isn't well made. The dialogue is patchy. The characters are, on the whole, hard to sympathise with. The lifts are weird. But somehow it comes together, slowly but surely and as it does it grows a heart and builds to a satisfactory conclusion.

I now need to write another 153 characters to get this review entered on IMDB. So here goes. I have seen a lot of Christmas films that are a lot worse, and I have seen many many more that are leagues ahead of "Christmas Eve". But does it pass the "would I watch it again" test? Yes it does, just.

Patrick Stewart is a diverse and lovable actor, one that can fit any role and be endearing to audience. The first flaw of many this movie has is secluding him form the rest of cast and makes him recites dull version of A Christmas Carol. The other plots are different groups of similarly pretentious characters trying to be humorous and delivering some warm message, all of which fail to do so.

This is several short stories woven together with one underlying theme; finding solace in unfavorable situation of confined in elevator. There are so many noises and gibberish, it just doesn't feel authentic in any way. Most of these characters speak and do things no ordinary person would even consider normal. Perhaps the movie would like audience to suspense judgement to these supposed colorful characters, but they are simply revolting.

Maybe only one or two of them are decent, and that's already an overstatement considering they rely so heavily on terrible script. If this is an attempt to build any connection then it's a misguided one. The photographer and random lady subplot is superbly awful, almost rude even. They are just silly in an attempt for mild romance which eventually ends up creepy and inauthentic.

There is actually a good cast here, they are just trapped in situation or company no one would like to see, let alone experience. The orchestra assembly stuck in one elevator is just too much, too crude and with no real focus. Jon Heder is pretty good, although he must content with horrible boss cliché. The one elevator that has some kind of heart is the hospital one, it sometimes looks real enough, however it's still lacking depth to present a drama of faith.

With so many angles and good cast, it's actually surprising that every single one of them is flawed. Having insipid script and appalling characters, it's better to be stuck on an elevator in real life than trapped watching this.

Sat down with the girlfriend thinking let's watch a Christmas movie, we were both excited by the idea of another funny Chrissy flick especially coming up to that time. We made a mistake. It cost us our night.

Absolute waste of time.. the reviews were a lot higher a few days ago which makes me think maybe it was the creator's friends jumping on? 2 stars for effort but this was nothing but frustrating and I can't for the life of me imagine who it might even appeal to.

It wasn't bad acting, it was simply unlikable characters with zero story line. Like a bunch of unfunny skit shows thrown together and no point.

WHY?! WHY would you make this?!

Doesn't matter how many times you've seen Jingle All The Way or The Santa Clause... Watch anything that made you laugh once, even for a 5th time over, before you even look at this "movie".

My first review ever on here...

I just had to warn the people.

As the message boards and the limited reviews have been somewhat merciless on this good-but-not-great movie, I feel duty bound to write a few good words.

I decided to invest a small amount of money on the film, because I was curious how James Roday would do outside of 'Psych' (which I have generally liked). But I had a pretty good experience watching the movie. Critical and audience reaction doubtless has reflected the fact that it is not a comedy, nor is it particularly warm (!). The writer-director (I believe) wanted to discuss a number of large life issues. (The movie actually might have worked better on some ordinary day, as very few of the subplots actually resolve with reference to the holiday).

Some of these are successful, some not. I particularly enjoyed the musicians in the elevator, and also doctors and patient. The scene with the five millenials (flaky girls, know-it-all, docent, and body builder) worked. So did the duo of Jon Heder and Max Casella. The solo of Patrick Stewart and the James Roday (sigh) did not work so well.

All that said, however, the different reactions of the trapped groups was interesting and dramatic. The critics' views that they are all unlikable is Grinch stuff. The reveals of the interconnections among them (done with some subtlety) were the script at its best.

All in all, a sort of Ship of Fools movie that ultimately worked, maybe because the formula is so strong. The critics and some of our acerbic friends on this site are way too negative.

The reason I give this two stars is because the acting and dialog are actually quite good in spots. However, the majority of the movie falls flat. The connection between characters feels flat and some of it is over the top hokey, especially the two girls and stripper Santa.

The movie builds up to be something profound but falls way short of delivery. You get the feel that if you keep watching it will eventually be worth the effort but it never comes. There is a dull climax and the resolutions are blah! As part of the audience there never was a connection to any of the characters even though I wanted that to be the case.

I have to agree with others when they say it is a waste of time.

"Deus ex machina" can be clearly read on the side of the copier repair van at the beginning of the movie(and the trailer), but as opposed to it being the divine intervention plot device to save the protagonist, in Christmas Eve it is the basis of a story where we see God manifested in multiple ways, all from the machine.

The story is slow at times, the dialogue is fair, but has its moments. This is a story designed to make you feel connected to the people around you and maybe even care about a stranger. It is not an action movie, it is not a romantic comedy, it is not 90 minutes of CGI. You have to engage in a little suspension of reality for the given situation and spend the night in an elevator with the characters that have normal lives and experience everyday outcomes.

Not the best Christmas movie I've seen. I would have liked more more time focused on Patrick Stewart's character, but in fairness I've never seen anything where I thought it had too much Patrick Stewart. In the end I took my children(10&4yo) and had less to worry about in the content than I do with prime time television. For that I am immensely thankful and will watch this with my family again next Christmas.

I really can't think of anything positive to say.

No really, nothing.

The first 4 reviews on here ,in chronological order, were obviously written by the director until he thought "fuck it" and gave up trying to convince us otherwise.

Annoying, obnoxious characters.

Zero plot.

I'm only still writing this because of the 10 lines thing on IMDb.

Why is that even a thing?

It doesn't make sense.

A few concise comments are all that are needed.

Is that enough? I can't be bothered to scroll back up and count.

En fin, don't waste your time.

I guess that this is as short a summary as I can write. And it does have certain of the same qualities as Love Actually has, which makes me wonder why people don't like it much.

A philosophical high strung bunch of people stuck together, and how the story develops. Now what makes the story lacking a little bit, are the questions we are stuck with. You'll figure them out too, if you see the film.

Christmas Eve has potential to being somewhat more, though.

What about a Directors Cut? There has to be a few more questions answered in other footage that wasn't used in this cutting?

Let's see that, next Christmas.

This is a typical christmas time film but have a unique take connecting modern livelihoods of modern people in a witty manner.

Rating - 3.5/5

I made a mistake deciding to watch this movie when I could have watch the timeless classic and inspiration to 'Christmas Eve', 'Love, Actually'. Knowing this would be a bad Christmas movie, I only watched it for Patrick Stewart, Cheryl Hines and because Larry King produced it! I would have rather been stuck in an elevator as that would have saved me the pain of watching it.

This movie is not terrible but it is almost uncomfortable to watch because of the slight hint of "fakiness" and melodrama in the writing and acting. You know those people who aren't exactly offensive but you are embarrassed for their insecure and way not clever one liners? Or the guy that tries to be slick but everyone can see right through him but he is not exactly a jerk? This is this movie. It has all the typical, (yawn), hallmarks of trying to be original and witty. It is just not that original at all. I recommend you just catch it on HBO next year when you are bored.

There are a few characters that are a bit amusing, but most are beyond cliché and even just stupid and annoying.

Surprisingly enjoyable with some laughs as well as the main story. Easy to watch, it doesn't need much concentration and the interlinking between stories is quite well done.

Why?

This movie was hard to watch even when barely watching.

I can't wrap my head around how someone wrote this and thought it was good enough to make a movie out of, like it could compete with even the worst movie that already existed.

I can't wrap my head around the amount of people that gave this 2+ stars much less 10

It's not even funny bad.

I agree with another review that said the lone girl stuck in the elevator with the creepy dude was like watching a horror movie hoping she makes it out alive or at the very least, unharmed, and the writers tried to makes this romantic. Cringe.

It's very rare I find books or movies so bad I have a hard time finishing them. This is one of those times.

Out of all the movies that exist, literally not a single reason to watch this one.

WHY??????

Most of the characters were pretty hard to like in the beginning. They grow on you though and soon you find yourself rooting for the ones you hated earlier. An odd, quirky film that's well worth watching. Patrick Stewart is brilliant, as usual, too.

Christmas Eve is a light, charming Christmas movie. It works mainly because of all the talented actors involved. (You can look at the IMDb listing to see who they all are.) The plot involves different groups of people being stuck on elevators in New York City for several hours on Christmas Eve. We get to know the people and see how they react to missing their Christmas Eve plans. I didn't really care for a couple of the groups, mainly the hospital elevator and the group of musicians. However, the elevator with James Roday and a neighbor was especially sweet and touching. And I would just like to hang out with the people in the mall elevator! Give this a try if you're looking for a sweet Christmas movie to watch.

Due to a freak traffic accident, a power outage occurs in Manhattan on Christmas Eve. As a result, elevators in nearby buildings all get stuck between floors. The disparate individuals trapped in all of these elevators are now forced to spend time with each other. This being a generally positive, uplifting type of story, the characters in these separate stories benefit from getting to know each other better. Among them are a tyrannical real estate tycoon (Patrick Stewart), a seemingly insensitive executive (Max Casella) who's just laid off a tech support guy (Jon Heder), a doctor (Gary Cole) with a terminally ill patient, and the members of an orchestra.

This *does* take a while to really grab hold of a viewer, especially since too many of the characters are initially unsympathetic, and too much of the comedy just doesn't work. It gets better as it goes along, though, and these people become more endearing. Ultimately, there are some genuinely poignant moments, brought to life by a top cast (also including James Roday, Cheryl Hines, and Julianna Guill).

Still, the writing for the most part is predictable, and even at the end, not all of the stories are really "resolved" that well. Still, I'll echo the sentiment that, in terms of seasonal movies, one could easily do a LOT worse than this. It's appealing if not memorable.

Six out of 10.

Of course I had not heard about the 2015 movie "Christmas Eve" prior to sitting down to watch it here in 2024. But then again, I am not usually overly keen on sappy Christmas movies. But every now and again I do go all in December up until Christmas Eve and watch an abundance of these movies. And thus, I had the opportunity to sit down and watch "Christmas Eve", and so I did.

Truthfully, I wasn't really harboring the biggest of expectations to the movie. But perhaps writers Mitch Davis and Tyler McKellar would surprise me with the script that they churned out for the movie.

I have to say that I feel that "Christmas Eve" utterly and totally fell short of being a proper Christmas movie. I found no entertainment, enjoyment or interest in the narrative. I mean, people stuck in elevators and talking hardly constituted as being what I am looking for in Christmas movies. So this movie was a swing and a miss in terms of entertaining me.

The movie has some familiar faces on the cast list, such as Patrick Stewart, Jon Heder, Cheryl Hines, Steve John Shepherd, Taylor James and Gary Cole. Despite the fact that the storyline and script was falling short of entertaining me, then I will say that the acting performances were good.

This movie is definitely not a movie that I will return to watch a second time. Nor is it a movie that I would recommend people looking for Christmas movies to sit down and watch.

My rating of Mitch Davis's 2015 "Christmas Eve" lands on a three out of ten stars.

I was surprised to read that critics initially panned this movie.

I saw it on cable and found it amusing, entertaining, touching, inspiring and intellectually stimulating. I was quickly involved in the plot and the off-beat characters and remained engrossed through the end.

Even after the movie was over, I continued to worry a about the fate of some of the characters: What happened to the woman with the fatal ailment? Did she end up telling her husband that she was going to die?

I suspect that one reason that critics underestimated this film is that it is different. For example, the humor is not slapstick or laugh-out-loud hysterical. Instead, it is quirky, droll and subtle.

Another reason that critics may have been put off is the fact that the story seems more appropriate for a stage play rather than for a movie.

The action is mostly confined to the interiors of a series of stuck elevators. Hence, there is not much physical activity. Because the setting is static, the movie, naturally, is talky---something that is not to everyone's taste.

This movie has been under-appreciated. As more people are exposed to it on cable, I suspect that it will grow into a cult classic.

The more I watch this film, the more I love it! In fact I've just re-graded it from 7 to 9.

It's so full of everything, there's comedy and tragedy, love and loneliness, insecurity and even cantankerousness.

The story is very different from the other Christmas films out there. It doesn't follow the typical boy meets girl formula in any way. It has a witty script and it's cleverly done. The stories concept is just thoughtful in itself.

There are some really beautiful moments in here and some lovely realisation.

Although it is classed as a comedy, it's actually more like real life and there are some moments in one of the lifts that are a bit creepy and you don't know if they are going to take a dark route for that storyline or not.

You can't help but feel for Patrick Stewart's character, despite his faults, as the only one to get stuck on his own and I have to say that he is brilliant as always. The whole cast are actually very well chosen and play their parts superbly.

One of my particular highlights is the band and the rendition of Silent Night is sublime.

I also like the fact that not everybody goes away happy at the finish and you don't know if you're going to end up heartbroken or beaming with a smile. After this viewing I'm smiling, because it was just what I needed after a bad day.