Fatman

Quand j’ai entendu parler de Fatman pour la première fois, je me suis dit que ce serait sûrement une curiosité intéressante, pour autant que les créateurs se soient décidés d’avance s’ils visaient plutôt une comédie familiale malicieuse ou bien un thriller sanglant non orthodoxe – pas un mélange des deux. Et après avoir vu le film, je dois dire qu’on se retrouve justement quelque part entre ces deux genres, comme je l’avais craint. Par moments, ce « western de Noël » est assez pessimiste, sinistre et non avare quant à la froideur de son action et la cruauté de ses meurtres. D’autres passages, par contre, sont ridiculement infantiles et truffés de personnages de BD niais (les vilains sont en fait un sale petit gosse de riche et un adulte resté figé dans son enfance traumatique et qui se promène avec un hamster). C'est comme si le scénario avait été écrit par les enfants de Robert Rodriguez. L’ensemble est fort divertissant et on n’a pas le temps de s’ennuyer. Mel Gibson fait des prouesses même dans le rôle inhabituel d'un père Noël badass et cool, mais le tout est gâché par cette ambiance ambiguë et une intrigue élémentaire et sans surprises ni revirements de situation. (23/11/2020)

An excellent idea, but they didn’t make the most of it. The premise, a spoiled kid who puts a hit on Santa for giving him coal in his stocking is all very well, but the result is feeble and the action is at best average. So the best bits are the pieces of bonus information that complete the overall picture. Santa making weapons for the army to be able to feed his elves, his disappointment at the aggressive kids and the fact that he has an Afro-American (or Afro-Canadian) wife. Gibson’s acting is convincing and the frustration his job gives him is infectious. Goggins’ assassin is a typical adult kid who is just interested in his pay packet. A great movie snack, nothing more, nothing less. (24/12/2020)

Mel Gibson as a badass Santa Claus who is being hunted by serial killer Walton Goggins. Genre-wise, I don't know where I'd put Fatman, the action is only at the end, there are few jokes for a comedy and it’s not suspenseful enough for a thriller, but it's still an interesting and fairly original film with a quirky idea. A spoilt brat from a rich family gets nothing but coal for Christmas and calls his "friend" to tell him that he wishes to murder Santa Claus, and he happily nods at the job, as he too was once abandoned by Santa. The best character in the film is definitely Walton Goggins, who plays the crazed killer absolutely flawlessly and professionally at the same time. He's smart, funny, uncompromising, consistent, and one of the best in his business, he makes the film very entertaining whenever he's on set, but it paces a little less without him. As a one-off with a pre-Christmas atmosphere Fatman serves just fine. Story***, Action***, Humor***, Violence**, Entertainment****, Music**, Visuals***, Atmosphere***, Suspense**. 6/10. (20/11/2020)

Goggins plays a killer who’s after Mel Gibson’s Santa, and it’s not fun? Fatman has a premise that could be taken in a lot of different funny directions, but it flounders in a boring genre mix that lacks detachment and charisma. There isn’t a single good joke and the potential doesn’t go any further than the interesting idea. The only thing that saves it are the two cool actors (even though I think one of them doesn’t know whether he’s in a comedy or a drama). I demand right now a remake with Bruce Willis as Santa and Nic Cage as a crazy naughty boy. (21/11/2020)

An original idea, definitely, yet I watched Fatman with the fear that Mel Gibson would go the way of Nicolas Cage or Bruce Willis and that it wouldn't be rubbish. And it’s not rubbish! First of all, I'm happy that the Nelms brothers didn't write and film the story in the style of Rodriguez's Machete (although that would have been very easy), but went about it in a different way. And so, surprisingly, the multi-genre Fatman has a really interesting and impressive, but hard to describe atmosphere, and waiting for the mandatory action finale certainly didn't bore me. (16/12/2021)