Get Santa is a mess. However, despite some questionable character decisions (GO SEE YOUR PAROLE OFFICER!) and the fantasy elements being a bit boring, it's a sincere and often really fun mess. Funny, bright, well-directed and comfortably familiar, it fits in nicely with fantasy-meets-reality family Christmas films like Elf and Santa Clause. Nothing transcendent, but certainly a worthy addition to the holiday canon.

Some people take everything so seriously. This is a fun Christmas film that I have witnessed being enjoyed by a large group aged from 4 to 72. It is no classic but is good fun with all the characters to see the good versus bad battle. Just relax with a mince pie and your favourite tipple - or a nice cuppa - and enjoy this harmless festive fun film.

A 9-year-old boy Tom finds Santa Claus in his garden shed after Santa crashes his sleigh. Desperate to return to Lapland in time for Christmas, Santa asks Tom and his dad Steve for help. It's just a few days before Christmas, and his reindeer are found running loose through the streets of London.

Give it a watch. It is harmless fun. Jim Bradbent is a brilliant Santa and adds to his catalogue of very different roles. Rafe Spall is excellent as the dad released from prison trying to help his young son surrounded by cynical people in all guises. Kit Connor is the 9 year old boy who is the star of the movie and is excellent.

I had wanted to see this Christmas movie for some time, I remembered it for the actor playing Santa, I saw it had a good cast, and it was rated well by critics, so I'm glad I finally got to watch it, from writer and director Christopher Smith (Creep, Severance, Triangle, Black Death). Basically, a few days before Christmas, Steve Anderson (Rafe Spall),a former getaway driver, has been released on parole from prison. His parole officer, Ruth (Joanna Scanlan),informs him that if he ever misses an appointment, he will violate his parole and be sent back to prison. Meanwhile, the news has been reporting reindeer wandering the streets of London. Steve is surprised when his son, Tom (Kit Connor),calls him claiming that he has found Santa Claus (Jim Broadbent) in the shed. Steve comes home, Santa mentions a time when Steve saw a shooting star when he was a child, but he mismisses him as a madman. Santa leaves the shed and tries to retrieve his reindeer from police lock-up but is caught and is sent to prison. The next morning, Steve appears for his first scheduled day with Tom, but Tom refuses to go anywhere unless they go to see Santa in prison. Santa instructs Steve on how to find his reindeer, and his crashed sleigh. In return, Steve gives him a mobile phone and provides him tips for surviving in prison. While in Santa, Santa becomes acquainted with fellow prisoners, including cellmate Barber (Stephen Graham),Knuckles (Nonso Anozie) who wants him to be Father Christmas for an upcoming prison party, and dwarf inmate Sally (Warwick Davis),who Santa assumes is an elf. Steve finds the field where the reindeer have been taken, with Tom establishing that the leader is Dasher, as Dasher communicates through flatulence. They are able to find the sleigh, but when Steve calls Santa to update him, he accidentally releases all of the magic dust the sleigh needs to fly. Santa informs him that he will find help if they go to Hermey's Tower in Suffolk. Despite this trip meaning that Steve will miss his parole hearing, he is determined to make his son happy, by helping Santa. Eventually, after some delays, they are able to reach Hermey's Tower, but are unable to work out what to do next. Back at the prison, Santa manages to convince the other prisoners of his identity when they see letters hit the window addressed to Santa, followed by Santa recounting presents he left for the prisoners when they were children. Ruth comes to prison to report Steve has missed his parole hearing, she also identifies Santa as 'Harry Mitchell', who was arrested while trying to climb down a chimney over twenty years and escaped. However, the prisoners begin to acknowledge the truth when an emergency news report reveals that children in Australia have woken up with no presents. Santa is transferred to solitary, while Steve contemplates giving up. But Tom translates a clue in a book they found and work out how to open Hermey's Tower, which is a giant post box to pick up Santa's letter, and when a passageway opens, they are transported to Lapland. Travelling through the letter-tunnel, Steve and Tom reach Elf City, where Steve convinces the elves to let him use an old sleigh to rescue Santa from prison. Reaching the prison, they use magic to enlarge a small chimney so that Steve and Tom can enter the prison. At the same time, Santa is about to be transferred to solitary, but with the help of Sally, he breaks out through a tunnel. They eventually reunite with Steve and Tom, while Allison (Jodie Whittaker),Tom's mother, arrives at the prison looking for Tom. When the police discover the car, Allison is forced to go along with the request to take them to a park. Santa buys them time by using a gun loaded with reindeer droppings as a distraction for the police. They reach the park where Oswald the squirrel has released and reassembled the sleigh and the reindeer. Santa invites Sally to accompany him, just before the police and Ruth arrive. She initially dismisses that Santa would ask for Steve's help, but Santa commends him because he never stops trying, says that adults can make mistakes, and that people need to believe in the magic of Christmas. With that, Santa takes off in the sleigh and departs for his night's work, wishing them all a Merry Christmas and thanking Steve and Tom for their help, expressing faith that the police will let him off after seeing the truth. Also starring Ewen Bremner as PC Finkerton, Peep Show's Matt King as Brian, Jon Snow as himself, and Susanna Reid as herself. Broadbent is most amusing as the big man with the beard, Spall is likeable as the ex-con who wants to make himself better for his son, and there is welcome support from British talents like Davis and Graham. It is simple enough story, Santa is wrongly imprisoned shortly before Christmas and his new friends help him to make sure children across the world will be happy, it is well written and funny, with occasional slapstick and screwball elements, this will delight kids and adults alike, a fun family seasonal comedy. Very good!