| Tinsel Town is a fun, funny, joyous surprise. Making fun of Hollywood action stars isn’t a new formula for comedies, but it is when it comes to Christmas movies and pairing it with British pantomime. Bradley Mac (Kiefer Sutherland) is a Hollywood action star of the “Killing Time” franchise currently onto its 7th instalment. Until Hollywood has had enough of these films and more specifically his agent has had enough of him, and he’s tricked into doing theater in England. | | 2025
Directed by: Chris Foggin
Screenplay by: Frazer Flintham & Adam Brown
and Piers Ashworth
Starring: Kiefer Sutherland, Rebel Wilson
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Of course Mac is assuming Hamlet at The Globe, but ends up in a small town three hours north of London at a pantomime theater doing a performance of Cinderella. A lot of what follows is predictable – Brad Mac furiously calling his agent to fix this mistake, but his agent has fired him, furiously calling his lawyer to get him out of the contract, insulting all the local theater actors as he starts realizing he’s stuck here. But all of this works for a few reasons. One, it’s funny – there are jokes throughout the movie about how stupid Mac is and they are all well written jokes especially since they are sprinkled in with a few reversal jokes where Mac calls his agent Judas, but the response is “her name is Julie, you really need to start learning names,” because it’s more logical and likely that Mac would not know her name as opposed to making an accurate reference.
The next big reason is Kiefer Sutherland. He goes for it every single scene, a 110% commitment to making this character heartfelt and funny, mostly funny. He brings the entire cast up to his level, and by the end it is thoroughly enjoyable and still funny. This is right up there as one of the best performances in a Christmas comedy.
It’s a relatively big cast with some good performances in unexpected places. Danny Dyer plays Kieran, Jill’s (Rebel Wilson) belligerent ex, who has this great humanizing moment in a callback to one of Bradley Mack’s Killing Time action scenes. There are enough great moments in the script like that combined with good performances and this movie is able to overcome all the pitfalls of a comedy-drama that occasionally wants to be taken seriously.
Rebel Wilson is a no-nonsense choreographer and I know the actress has been having a hard time recently shedding some past roles and finding a new voice, but this isn’t it. Nonsense is exactly what she should be doing, playing it straight doesn’t really work for her. But as I already said, Kiefer Sutherland brings the whole cast up to his level and the film is able to overcome this bizarre casting.
It also slows down at the beginning of the third act and Brad has realized he’s at his lowest point and he needs to start being a better father and a better human, etc. This movie is way better when it’s being funny, but once again, thanks to Kiefer Sutherland, there’s enough heart here to carry the movie to its joyous, musical ending which is simultaneously both funny and heartfelt.
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