Fatman movie review by Movie Review Mom

MOVIE TITLE: FATMAN

In Theaters TUESDAY, November 17

RATING: R

LENGTH: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: B+

IN A NUTSHELL:

Mammoth Entertainment gifts us with this very dark, insightful, and humorous Christmas movie starring Mel Gibson. The movie was co-written and co-directed by Eshom and Ian Nelms. You don’t normally see the words “Santa” and “hitman” in the same sentence, but that’s what this film does. I don’t know that it’ll ever be considered a Christmas classic. It’s not great, not bad, but definitely different for a holiday tale. For the small budget they had, they delivered an extremely effective movie that will surprise audiences. You might even say it’s timely for 2020.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

This is an ADULT Christmas movie that is not appropriate for kids.
Profanity, crude expressions, and several F-bombs.
Bloody violence with guns and hand-to-hand combat
High body count
Smoking, alcohol, poison
Attempted murder

THEMES:

Reliance on government and government interference.
Cynical society
Morals
Christmas spirit of love and giving
Consequences of your actions
There is a lot of strong commentary about society, entitled kids, kindness, and consequences, the definition of success, taxes, inspiration, hard-working families in America.

THINGS I LIKED:

- Mel Gibson has had his shining moments, as well as a lot of terrible ones that made us wince, but he’s still a really great actor. I really liked him in this clever role as a salty Santa. One of my all-time favorite movies is The Patriot starring Mel Gibbons. He’s also an excellent director of such Academy Award-winning movies as Braveheart , Hacksaw Ridge , Apocalypto , and The Passion of The Christ. He certainly doesn’t shy away from blood and gore. He battles his own demons such as alcoholism, but what a talented artist.

Walton Goggins always makes such a good villain.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays Mrs. Clause, which was a fun addition to the cast. Did you know her husband in real life is a ballet dancer?
It’s implied that the little boy in the movie, Billy Wenan, is based on political pundit Ben Shapiro. I have to admit, the young Chance Hurstfield looks just like what you would think Ben Shapiro would look like as a child. I would imagine the real Ben Shapiro would be flattered and insulted at the same time.
I loved how Chris knows everything about everyone. I mean, he’s Santa after all. He met a government worker and said, “You were a little touch and go there for a couple of years, weren’t you, Carter?” ha ha
It was entertaining to watch Skinny Man accumulate random items, wondering what he was going to do with them, like a hamster and toy airplane.
Gotta love that elf diet: carbohydrates and sugar. Toss in a 20-minute nap every 8 hours and they can keep working indefinitely. ha ha My dream diet.
Lots of dry, entertaining humor and conversations.
Very well utilized musical score with touches of Christmas songs.
The world-building in this movie is very clever.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

Soooo many dark scenes. I’m not talking about the humor. I mean they were visually dark, making it really hard to see what’s happening on small devices when it goes to streaming.
It took me a while to get into the movie but I was sold by the end.

FUNNY LINES:

“Let’s hope that inspiration starts with a shower.” – Ruth (Marianne Jean-Baptiste)
“You think I got this job because I’m fat and jolly?” – Chris (Mel Gibson)

INTERESTING LINES: