Christmas Crossfire – Netflix Review (3/5)

CHRISTMAS CROSSFIRE is a new Netflix movie from German (org. title Wir können nicht anders). It’s a dark comedy of a Christmas movie with a crime-thriller plot. Unfortunately, it does run too long. Read our full Christmas Crossfire review here!

CHRISTMAS CROSSFIRE is a new Netflix Christmas movie that has lots of dark humor, violence, and blood. It starts out pretty well but seems to be at a standstill for too long. Ultimately, this does mean that it’s at least 15 minutes too long.

Still, it is a dark comedy of a Christmas movie from German, which has a lot of crime and thriller elements as well. It is by no means boring or bad, but it could have been so much better.

Continue reading our Christmas Crossfire review below.

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​German Netflix Christmas movie

When the movie begins, fans of Dark will probably perk up. It begins with a narrator voice that feels wonderfully familiar from the immensely popular Netflix sci-fi series Dark. Unfortunately, the kind of expectation this opening scene might conjure up is completely wrong for this movie.

And it is a real shame since Christmas Crossfire could have been a really cool horror-comedy. You know, in the style we know from Better Watch Out or even a grown-up take on Home Alone.

You might like: Our review of the awesome Christmas horror-comedy Better Watch Out here >

In fact, there is nothing supernatural in this German Netflix movie, so it’s all about the weirdness of human nature. And yes, it is funny at times and there are grotesque scenes and dark humor. It just seems to be lacking those final 10-20% of edge to really make an impact.

Basically, it’s not dark enough to be a true crime-thriller and it definitely isn’t kitsch or campy enough to work as a horror-comedy.

Watch Christmas Crossfire on Netflix now!

The director and co-writer of Christmas Crossfire is Detlev Buck. He’s also seen on-screen as the character, Sigi, which is a key character that plays a big part in the final half of the movie.

The other screenwriter behind this German Netflix movie (org. title Wir können nicht anders) is Martin Behnke. This name might not be familiar to you, but Martin Behnke did actually write five episodes of Dark (for season 1 and season 2) as well as help with the Netflix docu-series A Perfect Crime.

If you like movies where losers like to pose as winners (you know, the kind of people who peaked in High School) and lots of people end up dead, then this is definitely worth checking out. Also, to be honest, it really does have moments of being very entertaining. Mostly, I’m just irritated by the missed opportunity of creating something really memorable and kitsch.

Christmas Crossfire is out on Netflix from December 4, 2020.

Details

Director: Detlev Buck
Writers: Martin Behnke, Detlev Buck
Stars: Kostja Ullmann, Alli Neumann, Sascha Alexander Gersak, Sophia Thomalla, Merlin Rose, Peter Kurth, Detlev Buck, Anika Mauer, Frederic Linkemann, Bernd Hölscher