Movie Matchup - Fatman vs. Violent Night
Originally I was going to write reviews for these two extremely similar movies and drop them on the same day. But I decided instead to just drop this one article matching them up, comparing & contrasting them, and letting you know which I prefer! Don’t worry, this is much shorter than my usual ‘Other Stuff’ articles.
The earlier of the two films, ‘Fatman,’ released in 2020 and came from the filmmaking brothers, the Nelms brothers. It’s described as a Christmas action black comedy film. It stars Mel Gibson as Chris Cringle, who has been struggling with production metrics, government interference, and the lack of belief from children in the modern day.
Meanwhile, ‘Violent Night’ released two years later in 2022 and is a Christmas action comedy from Tommy Wirkola. It stars David Harbour as Santa, now a drunkard who has decided this will be his last Christmas. He ends up getting stuck in a house with a group of assassins holding an ultra rich family hostage in their mansion.
Both films feature unconventional, grumpy, cussing, drinking Santas who end up getting involved in some dangerous action. ‘Fatman’ features Walton Goggins as an assassin hired to take Chris out, while ‘Violent Night’ stars John Leguizamo as the head of a team attempting to rob a billionaire family. Both films had $20 million budgets, with ‘Fatman’ only making $1.7 million and ‘Violent Night’ making $76.6 million at the box office, though remember the former of these released in 2020 so that needs to be accounted for in the box office numbers. ‘Violent Night’ received better critical praise with a 73% on Rotten Tomatoes opposed to ‘Fatman’’s 45%.
Overall I think ‘Fatman’ was okay earning a 5.5/10 from me. Mel Gibson was fine as Santa, but felt too one dimensionally grumpy. I really enjoyed Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Mrs. Claus, a character who is really underrepresented in films. I think too much of the film focused on non-Santa things and there was really minimal action to the end. It was very gritty so I’ll give it some credit for that and if you want to watch it for yourself, stream it on Paramount+.
I think ‘Violent Night’ was better, earning a 7/10 from me. I much preferred Harbour’s Santa to Gibson’s and thought eh action was significantly better. The film came from 87North Productions, known for the ‘John Wick’ franchise, and felt like a Christmas themed Wick knockoff. It mentioned Christmas films like ‘Die Hard’ and ‘Home Alone’ and did a good job paying homage to them in an R-rated way. Along with Harbour and Leguizamo, the film also features Alex Hassell, Edi Patterson, & Beverly D’Angelo. The film has a sequel coming in 2026 with confirmed cast members Daniela Melchior, Jared Harris, Joe Pantoliano, Maxwell Friedman, Andrew Bachelor, and Kristen Bell set to play Mrs. Claus. The sequel is said to be inspired by ‘Miracle on 34th Street.’ If you want to stream the original film for yourself, it can be found on Peacock.
