A Merry Little Ex-Mas review – Netflix’s season of cheapo festive fare begins with a shrug

<p>Alicia Silverstone is latest 90s star to lead a film for the streamer but her charm can’t save another bland addition to their pile of festive fare</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/dec/21/readers-bad-brilliant-christmas-movies">‘Hypnotically terrible’: readers on 15 so-bad-they’re-brilliant Christmas movies</a></p></li></ul><p>There’s not quite enough charm to go around in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/netflix">Netflix</a>’s festive season opener A Merry Little Ex-Mas, a film that might have benefited from a release date a little closer to the big day. Maybe by then, we might have been more enveloped in the all-consuming excitement of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/christmas">Christmas</a> to overlook its failings, but here in the post-Halloween, pre-Thanksgiving netherworld, there is no amount of fake snow or eggnog that can convince us to get on board.</p><p>It’s yet another one of the streamer’s mechanically assembled seasonal box-tickers – lead best known from the 90s/2000s, a budget of what looks like $13, some unfunny pratfalls, some city v small town tension, a visibly Canadian shoot, regressive gender roles – and will probably be lapped up by the same crowd who come back every year knowing exactly what to expect. It’s thankfully not as hideous as these can be (2023’s Heather Graham/Brandy sled-wreck <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/nov/16/best-christmas-ever-review-netflix-comedy-might-be-worst-of-the-season">Best. Christmas. Ever!</a> remains as bad as things on both Netflix and in life itself can get) but it’s also not quite as passably fine as it should be (last year’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/nov/06/meet-me-next-christmas-review-netflix-romcom">Christina Milian</a> and <a href=&quo