A Meowy Christmas

Director - Steve Rudzinski (CarousHELL, Red Christmas)
Starring - Steve Rudzinski, Aleen Isley (Captain Z & The Terror of Leviathan, Super Task Force One), and Amie Wrenn (The Survivors, Red Christmas)
Release Date - 2017
Genre - Comedy/Crime
Format - Streaming (Online Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     I love Christmas.  Hell, I may love it more than Halloween...which is blasphemy for a horror fan.  I love Halloween so don't get me wrong but the holiday season is special to me even more so now that I have little ones of my own.  Their excitement for the lights, the stories, the movies, and seeing their faces light up when they open their gifts from Santa makes me thankful to be their father.  Director Steve Rudzinski is another horror fan with a passion for Christmas.  Though Steve is an accomplished horror director he has branched out to other genres over the years resulting in some seriously fun films.  Recently, Steve tackled the Christmas movie with his talking cat film A Meowy Christmas.  Steve was kind enough to reach out to me to check out this holiday comedy.  Thank Steve!
     The film follows pet Ms. Whiskers and her rodent roommate Chuck who are the pets of Officer Wally Griswold (Rudzinski).  Wally loves the holidays and when he hears that some burglars have been stealing Christmas presents he decides to act fast to catch the culprits before they ruin anyone else's Christmas.  There's a big catch.  Wally is a buffoon.  Wally is not capable of catching the thieves so it is up to Ms. Whiskers and Chuck to stop them.
     A Meowy Christmas isn't a film I would typically watch.  Granted, growing up I loved Air Bud and Cats vs Dogs but as I got older these types of films lost their appeal.  With that being said, I don't pass up a Steve Rudzinski film!  The acting in this one is fun.  Steve brings to life a very funny lead that is very quirky and enjoyable to watch.  His eagerness to help and love for Christmas is clearly modeled after himself while his empty headedness is stretching it.  He makes his character fun and parodies a lot of the good cops from 80s sitcoms at the same time.  The voice over for the animals is funny.  I really liked their high spirits but some of the scenes just didn't match what the animals were doing.  Their voices were contradictory to how the animals were acting which is understandable considering their nature is unpredictable and they were not trained.  The story for this one pays homage, or parodies depending on how you see it, a lot of classic Christmas films from Home Alone to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  The burglars, even though they are male and female, are just like Harry and Marv from the original Home Alone.  One is street smart while the other is dumb (but with a knack for home decorating).  Things go south when they pick the wrong house that is booby (hehe) trapped by the critters just like Kevin McCallister in Home Alone.  They even open all their presents as a calling card that it was them just like how they left the water running in every house they hit.  Wally Griswold is even a throwback to the Vacation series which spawned the greatest Christmas movie of all time, Christmas Vacation.  His last name is inspired by the family's surname of Griswold while Wally was derived from the theme park they try to visit in the first film Vacation which was Walley World.  The film has several Christmas themed references that was cleverly written in.  I enjoyed that aspect of the film but there was a few scenes that just fell flat.  They didn't bring much to the overall film and did very little to help push the story along.  Finally, this is not the bloody and gory Christmas themed horror flick you may be looking for.  However, if you want something whimsical with tons of cat puns you will enjoy this one.  Overall, A Meowy Christmas is a fun watch if you like the lighter side of cinema.  The film isn't my typical cup of tea but I would be lying if I didn't say I had fun.  This is one that will be clawing up your holiday watch list.  Check it out.