“You think I got this job because I’m fat and jolly?!?” — Santa Claus roaring at an adversary in “Fatman.”
You BETTER be careful, you BETTER now not cry, you BETTER now not pout, I’m telling you why:
Santa Claus is having none of that.
Santa Claus is in a temper. Santa Claus is a hard-drinking, world-weary, financially strapped and deeply cynical S.O.B. who laments to his spouse, “We should have charged royalties for my image” and describes his worldview thusly: “All I have is a loathing for a world that’s forgotten.”
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That’s some darkish s— proper there, Santa.
So it is going within the Nelms brothers’ “Fatman,” some of the darkest takes ever at the legend of Santa Claus. Heavily bearded, wild-eyed Mel Gibson performs one Chris Cringle, who runs his operation from a the town referred to as North Peak in Alaska and is at the verge of monetary break, most commonly as a result of such a lot of other people have misplaced their religion and such a lot of children internationally are behaving in a way that may yield not anything however a lump of coal on Christmas morning.
Ho ho no!
“Fatman” veers wildly in tone from a gloomy fairy story to a gritty, violent hitman film. The opening scenes heart on mean-spirited, rotten-to-the-core 12-year-old named Billy (Chance Hurstfield), a sociopath within the making. (I’d be afraid to take a look at this child’s social media footprint.) When looking for revenge on classmates or concocting some twisted plot, Billy frequently enlists the services and products of a mercenary recognized most effective as Skinny Man (Walton Goggins), who, like Billy, has been scarred by way of Christmas morning unhappiness. Skinny Man is so obsessive about compensating for his personal tragic adolescence he spends exorbitant quantities to buy previous Christmas treasures from adults. When a thirtysomething enters Skinny Man’s lair with a real Santa Claus-made baseball bat from his early life, Skinny Man hisses: “What do you think your childhood dream is worth?”
Meanwhile, industry at North Peak assists in keeping dwindling. (There’s now not a number of exposition explaining the way it used to be ever winning to make zillions of toys and ship them on Christmas Eve, however there you will have it.) So when Chris Cringle is obtainable an army contract, he has no selection to simply accept it, a lot to the chagrin of his unswerving elves, who nonetheless upward thrust to the problem and get again to paintings, underneath the watchful eye of uniformed group of workers. If that sounds bizarre to you, that’s as it IS bizarre.
Walton Goggins is memorable as Skinny Man, a mercenary employed by way of a dissatisfied kid to take out Santa.Saban Films
Marianne Jean-Baptiste performs Cringle’s unswerving and supportive spouse, Ruth, who reminds her husband they’ve been via many a difficult time in the course of the many years (perhaps even in the course of the centuries, because it’s transparent they’ve been in combination a long time). Chris appreciates and loves his spouse, however he’s close to the top of his rope, and he frequently slinks away to the native dive bar to drown his sorrows and lament the state of the arena. Little does he know issues are about to head from dangerous to bloody worse, because the bratty Billy has employed Skinny Man to assassinate the Fatman himself! That’s proper, Skinny Man goes to make the lengthy and onerous trek to North Peak, observe down Chris Cringle and put a bullet in his head. So a lot for a Silent Night, youngsters.
Walton Goggins turns in a memorably loopy efficiency because the psychotic killer Skinny Man, who casually dispatches sufferers whether or not they’re naughty or great, every now and then in hilariously darkish style. Gibson takes his function critically as smartly, however it’s as though Cringle and Skinny Man exist in a Liam Neeson-esque (or Mel Gibson-esque) violent mystery, whilst…