Plot Summary
The war on Christmas is everywhere, dontcha know? I mean, we can’t even talk out Santa Claus anymore. If we say Merry Christmas, we’re practically blackballed in social circles. We can’t even put Christmas trees or neigh-tivity scenes on government property anymore (or Muslim symbols for that matter). Something has got to change before ‘Merica becomes one of those atheistic third world countries we buy Christmas junk from. We need a hero to save our Christmas traditions from extinction. Never fear, Kirk Cameron is that hero! Join him on a quest to turn the hardest Scrooge heart back to the good ole’ days of Christmas. Join Kirk in a meditation experience unlike any other as he guides your mind to focus on rocks, trees, snow globes, ornaments, and nutcrackers. Experience the Christmas spirit in a way you’ve never experienced it before—with Kirk Cameron as your Christmas Zen master. By the time it’s over, you’ll want all the Buzz-Saw Louie’s you can grab, because that’s what Christmas is really about. You’ll probably also join the awkward white yuppie people dance-off to the tune of Family Force 5 Christmas, prompted by your stereotypical black friend DJ. Get your tickets today, this is a show you don’t want to miss (not)!
Production Quality (-3 points)
Saving Christmas is a real doozy, even more so than Mercy Rule, if that’s even possible. Starting with the three opening sequences and concluding with the two most ridiculous scenes in modern Christian film, space does not permit us to truly convey the lunacy of this film. Filled with endless narration from the egotistical Cameron, this production is an explosion of every Christmas decoration you can imagine. As an annoying Christmas soundtrack blares in your ears, you are forced to be subjected to Cameron’s famed use of slow motion and freeze frames, obviously to improve the runtime and give Kirk more chances to impart his wisdom. The barely one-hour runtime is also propped up by recycled footage, stock footage, scenes of characters endlessly staring, and even an entire minute of total silence. Besides all this, the meditation on Christmas is aided by fading out to the same scene several times. Sets are severely limited to an extravagantly decorated house, a vehicle, and some random outdoor scenes. We could go on and on, but we would risk becoming as long-winded as Cameron. Basically, think of the worst possible production scenario in a film, and this would be it.
Plot and Storyline Quality (-3 points)
While there is really not plot to speak of, there is plenty of madness to speak of, from its schizophrenic structure to its racial stereotypes. As Cameron attempts to tie every Westernized holiday tradition back to the Bible with bizarre correlations and to lead the audience in creepy meditation on these objects, we are left to ponder some extremely head-scratching and sometimes disturbing ideas. For instance, Cameron advocates for outright violence through the less than historically accurate retelling of Saint Nicolas. If somebody doesn’t agree with you, body-slam them! Also, when a character brings up the excellent point of the consumerist waste of Christmas, saying that the money could be spent on charitable work instead, Cameron just laughs it off and later encourages Christians to spend all they want on themselves at Christmas time, just to make sure not to ‘max out the credit card’. But the nonsensical ramblings are not limited to materialistic apologetics—the centerpiece of the film is Cameron’s strange and laughable holiday concepts, such as trying to link nutcrackers to Roman soldiers and Christmas gifts to the New Jerusalem or something. While he falls further and further down the rabbit hole of forced correlations, he makes light of real issues in his quest to shove his ridiculous worldview down your throat. There is far too much nonsense in this film to discuss at length here, but the bottom line of Saving Christmas is that Kirk Cameron paints a giant strawman out of people who disagree with his outrageous claims that white Christians should grab all they can at Christmastime while totally disregarding the poor and less fortunate. His position is indefensible and has no place in Christian film.
Acting Quality (-3 points)
Besides the patriarchal superiority and zany ‘holiday cheer’ displayed by the self-centered Cameron, his costars enablers post performances that will be forever remembered—for all the wrong reasons. Darren Doane, who tolerated and assisted Cameron in creating this madness for some reason, comes off as a rambling lunatic. David Shannon is perhaps one of the most self-parodying actors in history. From start to finish, Saving Christmas will go down in history as one of the worst films ever.
Conclusion
There is no comprehending the twisted mind of Kirk Cameron. Calling himself a fundamentalist Christian and donning the cape of a hero who claims to stand for religious freedom, Cameron decides to throw off convention again and opt for…advocating for materialistic Christianity? Seriously, who cares about Christmas ornaments looking like ‘stylized fruit’? Why do we need to defend and cling to snow globes, nutcrackers, and creepy Santa’s in order to be better Christians? If this movie is to be believed, there is no difference between westernized Christmas traditions and the Scriptures. This is wrong on a number of levels. Saving Christmas is not only a terribly lame attempt at filmmaking, nor is it only a total waste of your time: it is an affront to the ‘true meaning of Christmas’ because it suggests and infers that Christians just need to have a lot of stuff to be happy. This childish notion has no place in Christian film and Kirk Cameron should no longer be regarded as a legitimate filmmaker. He has plumbed the depths of horrible film making and has written the proverbial book on how to run a film into the complete ground. It’s little wonder he has not made a movie since this one.
Final Rating: -10 out of 10 points
Box Office Revolution 