The Christmas Star (1986)
Horace McNickle (Edward Asner) is a two-time felon serving prison time for counterfeiting. On the week before Christmas, he escapes from prison dressed as Santa Claus due to his uncanny resemblence to St. Nick resulting from his long white beard and heavyset features. McNickle hides out from the police in a nearby suburban neighborhood where he is befriended and helped by two local children who think he is the real Santa Claus. McNickle takes advantage of the kids naive ness to help him get his counterfeit money hidden somewhere in a local department store while he develops kind-hearted feelings for his two con victims that make him slowly understand the true nature of Christmas.
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Too much of everything
Good story, Not enough for a whole film
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
ed asner gives a great performance as Horace mcnickle in a Disney family film gifting the full spirit of the festive season mcknickle who escapes prison he was a counterfeiter he looks very like st nick the search is on for him by the police and the one detective who looking for him cant catch a break and want to be home for Xmas but with so many Santa's to find one is tough ordeal for police mcknickel lost something from his last caper but decides to take advantage of two kids who accidentally find him sleeping rough but as he realizes as it dawns on him about his past his past catches up with in the form of 3 ghost of Xmas past so in order to help the kids he pays hi dues gives them something to cheer so rather than keep running he tries to change and promise to be more cheerful this is a great family movie at 1hr30mins its not to bad
It's a shame that this movie isn't available on DVD (or VHS, for that matter). Thankfully, I did tape it on VHS (commercials & all) when it last aired. Truly a wonderful film, it made remember some of those "warm & fuzzy" feelings that I used to have about Christmas when I was a child. A Disney © production, maybe someday it will be available for purchase...
Probably one of the most underrated Christmas movies out there. Ed Asner was perfectly cast as a grumpy prisoner, the storyline was a very touching one, and the acting was all-around excellent. Would recommend this to anyone. Only wish I could find a tape or DVD of it somewhere ...
What I love the most about Christmas its that their his lots of old movie like this one on TV. It just finished an hour now and I wanted to write about it before I think of something else. This is a lovely film and it confirmed what I knew since a long time,That Barret Oliver was the greatest child actor their was during the 80's,He his so natural.Even now compare him to Haley Joel Osmend and you can see that Barret was even better. Anyway, the film his simple but it work,after the credit roll you feel happy and full of hope for mankind. It's a shame that they dont do Christmas movie like this anymore.