By Geno McGahee
You can’t go wrong with Ted McGinley. For years, he played “Jefferson” on one of the best comedic sitcoms ever: MARRIED WITH CHILDREN. I’m happy to see that he is still acting and has been showing up in a few films. In the 2011 Pureflix film “CHRISTMAS WITH A CAPITAL C,” he plays a Christian, eager to defend the reason for the season. I love most of these Pureflix films. I’m an atheist, but I’m open to entertainment across the board and these films are very entertaining. Other notables featured in this include Brad Stine and Daniel Baldwin.
Dan Reed (McGinley) is the mayor of a small town and is readying it for the Christmas season. Signs are being put up everywhere, welcoming the holiday from mostly a religious point of view. Nobody seems to care. I have seen these sorts of battles happen all over the place and I don’t care if somebody says merry Christmas to me or not. I would rather have them say that than go F yourself, but I’m OK with happy holidays too. No need to fight about this stuff, but people do. When former high school rival, Mitch Bright (Daniel Baldwin), returns to town after many years away, the rivalry begins to pick up again. Dan and Mitch fought over everything and Dan won most of the time, including the love of his wife, Kristen (Nancy Stafford). At first, it all seems very calm, but the storm is brewing.
Sitting at the local diner, Mitch begins speaking to the townies and tells them about certain things he can do to bring in business and tourism into the town. They are all receptive, considering that they all own small businesses, for the most part. Unfortunately, one of the things that are keeping people away, according to Mitch, is the Christian vibe of the town. He wants to take the Christ out of Christmas and the town is split on the idea. Dan and his brother, Greg (Brad Stine), are vehemently opposed and considering Dan’s place in the town, he has the final say. That will be challenged in the mayoral race that Mitch throws his hat into.
Things get dirty when Mitch stops Dan’s daughter, Makayla (Francesca Derosa) from singing on government property, a thing that has been done yearly for quite some time. Dan and Greg start investigating Mitch and begin to find out some very interesting things about his true reason for coming into town and starting up all this conflict. It leads to a decision to either bury Mitch or find some common ground and get along. It’s a Christian film. So you can probably figure out what decision he made.
CHRISTMAS WITH A CAPITAL C covers a topic that is a point of contention for many. It’s a rather silly one, actually. When somebody gets offended at either “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays”, you must classify them as an idiot. Any well wish should be accepted even if you don’t subscribe to the philosophy of their choice. In this film, we get that “war on Christmas” that so many have discussed, but the holiday is really a personal thing and it can’t be destroyed as long as it is in your heart and home. Sounded lame right? Maybe I should have just said home and not heart. I’ll let you decide if I sounded like an idiot there or not. You don’t have to email me with the results.
McGinley is a very versatile actor and he has found a home in dramatic work. He did a great job in this film and they also cast the villain very well. Baldwin delivers here. A pleasant surprise was Brad Stine. I couldn’t figure out where I knew him from, but then it hit me. He did that Christian standup comedy routine that was cringe-worthy in some documentary, BUT I’m happy to report that he was funny in this film and provided the comic relief that was needed. I really liked his performance. A lot of good comedic actors are not good at standup. Look at Tim Allen!
I recommend this flick. It runs the typical course of most religious flicks from Pureflix. You have Christians done wrong and then they fix it and those that did them wrong come around at the end to see the error of their ways. It’s a formula they use and it’s a winning formula. I found this entertaining and over the top and I love over the top acting.
Rating: 7.5/10
