Santa's Smoko

Brothers in Crime are a notoriously excellent 48HOURS team with a patchy record in terms of getting films in on time from memory and 2017 is, sadly, no exception. This darkly Kiwi story of a slacker NZ Santa with an aversion for The City of the Future will play gangbusters everywhere except maybe Hamilton. Heat 2 throwing up a definite candidate for best disqualified film, one has to wonder what could have been if they had been able to deliver this macabre and manic Christmas present on time.

This film was comedy gold. A pity it was disqualified. Santa and his elves generated alot of humour and jokiness that had the audience chuckling hard. Santa's workshop could have been better dressed to make the setting more believable but good fun overall.

Brothers in Crime are the best. Every year you can see them getting better and better. It's such a shame this film was late to hand in because it would be a contender in the Auckland finals for sure.

I love Brothers and Crime. Their writing is always a breath of fresh air and like most big teams I look forward to what they produce. I'll start off with what I didn't like, it felt a bit too rushed (cramming lots into the 5 min limit) which it didn't feel like in their last year's submission, I felt there were some moments that were prematurely cut-off that could have been milked a bit more and it really felt like the film was made to be more of a 10min+ (this is hardly a criticism, more of a tip from a fan that wants to see more). Now I'll talk about what I liked, the elves were perfect in their roles especially the enthusiastic Santa fanboy who rejoices after getting the news that he is getting a pretty crappy pay rise. The interaction between him and Santa was hilariousm despite it being very short. Look I love these guys' films, I think they bring out a kind of comedy that no one else does or has done. They for me sit right between your high production value awe inspiring 48 and your school student amateurity which is a great balance between certainty and spontaneity. They've always stuck true to their genre and I think they do it best. Perhaps I'm giving these guys a higher rating because they were a stand out in their field. P.S. get your film in time you idiots.

Was weird watching this coz the story is along the lines of ours but slightly different. production values were awesome. i expected balls. didnt get any this years. awesome job guys!

I just watched this in the screening room and was BAFFLED that it wasn't a finalist, only to come to the reviews and find out it wasn't on time :( I guess that's better than it getting unnoticed! The locations, the acting, the characters and story are all top notch in this film, taking us to VERY surprising places, and Kevin the elf saying "Very much so!" got a huge chuckle out of me, as did the various assortment of people you'd dressed up as elves. What a great set of ideas, executed to their absolute full potential. I would say my only real gripe would be the pacing, I think I would have liked less time in the set-up (all we need to know if the elves are unhappy, and jump at the joy of being able to deliver to Hamilton- you could have shortened or cut that whole first scene all together), and more time in the grizzly meat of the story with Santa slaughtering a bunch of evil elves. Great work guys! What an awesome film.