{"id":311466,"date":"2025-11-24T20:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T20:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/311466\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T20:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T20:46:10","slug":"kiefer-sutherland-stars-in-holiday-comedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/311466\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiefer Sutherland Stars in Holiday Comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt\u2019s that time of year again. The time of year when you can\u2019t walk into a multiplex or turn on your television (especially the Hallmark Channel) without encountering a movie determined to make you feel good about the holidays. It can all make you feel as Scrooge-like as washed-up Hollywood action movie star Brad Mac, the protagonist in Chris Foggin\u2019s new addition to the overcrowded genre. It\u2019s no spoiler to reveal that by the end of Tinsel Town (a cute punning title), Brad has learned to embrace the holiday, even if it means having to appear in a British pantomime show.<\/p>\n

\n\tBrad is played by Kiefer Sutherland<\/a>, displaying an admirable willingness to make fun of the fact that his days as Jack Bauer on 24 are long behind him (at least until the next reboot). In the best Scrooge tradition, Brad \u2014 a three-time Razzie Award nominee who at the story\u2019s beginning is filming the seventh installment of his cheesy action movie series Killing Time \u2014 is an obnoxious blowhard who hits on his married co-star and refuses to do his own stunts.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTinsel Town\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/p>\n

\tA Yuletide diversion for Anglophiles.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRelease date: Friday, Nov. 28
Cast: Kiefer Sutherland, Rebel Wilson, Derek Jacobi, Mawaan Rizwan, Maria Friedman, Jason Manford, Asim Chaudhry, Danny Dyer, Ray Fearon, Lucien Laviscount
Director: Chris Foggin
Screenwriters: Frazer Flintham, Adam Brown, Piers Ashworth, Jake Brunger
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1 hour 33 minutes\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tHe quickly gets his comeuppance when he\u2019s informed that the studio has nixed future installments of the franchise and that he\u2019s basically become unemployable because he\u2019s too difficult. His beleaguered agent says the only job available is a theater role in England, so Brad reluctantly makes the trek across the pond.<\/p>\n

\n\tGreeted by his cheerful driver Nigel (Mawaan Rizwan) and informed that they\u2019re headed to the Savoy, Brad settles down for a nap in the car. When he wakes up, he discovers that he\u2019s not in London but rather the small town of Stoneford, three hours away. He\u2019s not staying at the famous Savoy Hotel, but rather the Savoy Guest House that\u2019s currently without running water. And the role he\u2019s about to take on is Buttons in a pantomime production of Cinderella.<\/p>\n

\n\tJust a few minutes in, it\u2019s obvious that Tinsel Town requires a significant suspension of disbelief. But if you\u2019re in the right frame of mind, you\u2019ll just go with it. Nearly everything that occurs next proves thoroughly predictable, from Brad\u2019s outrage at his current predicament to his hostility toward the cast and crew working on the show to his disengaged relationship with his young daughter (Matilda Firth), who\u2019s now living with her remarried mother (Alice Eve) in London.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlong the way, however, Foggin and his quartet of screenwriters deliver plenty of entertainment. It\u2019s not surprising, considering that the director and several of the scribes were previously responsible for such similarly sweet British comedies as Bank of Dave and Fisherman\u2019s Friends.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt also helps considerably that the cast includes more than a few ringers, including Rebel Wilson<\/a> as Jill, the show\u2019s choreographer; Derek Jacobi as the stage door manager who used to be a panto star himself; and stage legend and three-time Olivier Award winner Maria Friedman as the actress playing the Fairy Godmother. Jacobi in particular gets the chance to shine, with a poignant monologue in which his character talks tenderly about his deceased husband.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe plotting becomes needlessly complicated at times, such as with Jack becoming a local hero after foiling a burglary, and later disgracing himself with a drunken tirade at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony, which leads to him being arrested and put on trial. There are subplots involving Jill\u2019s contentious relationship with her bullying ex-husband (Danny Dyer) and the burgeoning romance between the panto\u2019s Prince Charming (Lucien Laviscount, Emily in Paris) and Cinderella (Savannah Lee Smith, Gossip Girl). By the time the film ends with a spirited ensemble rendition of Katy Perry\u2019s \u201cRoar,\u201d you may feel as overstuffed as if you\u2019d gorged at a Christmas banquet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are plenty of amusing moments involving the colorful townspeople and the central character\u2019s fish-out-of-water unease in his new situations. But Tinsel Town is most effective when concentrating on Brad\u2019s inevitable heartwarming transformation from arrogant movie star to gleeful member of the panto\u2019s hardworking ensemble, and his newfound maturity in terms of being a loving father to his daughter. Sutherland makes it all work, delivering a thoroughly winning performance that makes you buy into the overall hokum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s that time of year again. The time of year when you can\u2019t walk into a multiplex or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,1288,206,30957],"class_list":{"0":"post-311466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-kiefer-sutherland","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-rebel-wilson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}