Small Town Santa (2015)

Title: Small Town Santa
Year of Release: 2015
Available On: Netflix, October 2017
Rating: 1 out of 5 Jingle Bells

Sheriff Rick Langston (Dean Cain) has lost his holiday spirit and stomps around his wonderful small town acting like a doofus – even at Christmas time.

Parents need to know that Small Town Santa features divorced parents who bicker in front of their daughter over visitation during the holidays. A child says she is “too old to believe in Santa,” which may upset kids who still cling tightly to the belief. Santa spends a large part of the film in jail, and the film plays to other small-town stereotypes, such as the town drunk, nasty ex-wife, and boozy, critical mother-in-law. Overall, it’s a family-friendly movie with positive messages about the redemptive spirit of the holidays. –Common Sense Media review.

A man who thinks he is Santa repeatedly breaks into Sheriff Langston’s house, so he hauls him off to jail. In (the one room, small town) jail, Santa and the town drunk are privy to many of the town’s goings on. And a new single mother and her teenage daughter, the same age as the Sheriff’s daughter, keep things interesting on Christmas Eve. The Sheriff eventually has a redemptive moment and promises to be less reactive and more grateful, but nobody changes overnight. And I really don’t care for Dean Cain. It has a nice message and I really like some of the supporting cast buuuuuut… this is still ultimately a bad movie. Skip this one. I mean, unless you’re like me and you’re super-duper bored and watch bad movies for enjoyment.