Fatman (2020)

This is Miller with his car, having just finished shooting practice. That looks like a lighthouse foghorn by the door. What the hell is it doing there?

Plot of Fatman: Billy Wenan is a rich kid who secretly employs a hit man to carry out his every wish. When he fails to win the school diorama competition he gets the hit man out to harass Christine the winner, and when Father Christman/ Chris Cringle only gives him a lump of coal for Christmas he gets the hit man, Jonathan Miller, to hunt Chris down in revenge. Jonathan himself has a grudge against Chris. Meanwhile up in the present workshops the elves have had to accept a government contract to make parts for a fighter aircraft, due to lack of demand for their proper activity. This is due to the changing views of children who are becoming ungrateful and unpleasant. The elves take on the task guarded by a group of soldiers, but out in Alaska, Miller is getting closer, now armed with a variety of firearms and edged weapons.

Content: No sex or nudity, but some drinking. Chris, in a bar, sends a young man home who had been hit on by the barmaid, showing one of his superpowers. But he obviously needs self-protection, since he practices with a hand gun. Billy is seen being underhand, and towards the end is prepared to poison his grandmother with fentanyl. Miller carries out assassinations and is seen practicing his dark arts.  And for much of the duration of the film he is tracking across the country trying to find and attack Chris. There is an extended gunfight.

A View: Well, unfortunately the numbers say it all. This outing apparently cost $20 million and recovered $1.7 million at the box office. I am forgetting the precise timing but I get the impression that the release took place during the COVID lockdown. One of the critics said, ‘it never gets past the ideas stage’ and that’s how it seemed to me. I kept thinking that something interesting was going to happen soon, but it just gradually petered out like a damp squib. Light the blue touchpaper and stand clear, it fizzes and then just goes out.

Fun Fact: the Nelms brothers have been trying to make this film since 2006.