‘NATIVITY ROCKS!’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Jerry Poppy’s Rock Opera
Is this the worst ‘Nativity’ movie ever made in the film series? 😐
‘Nativity Rocks!’ (or ‘Nativity Rocks!: This Ain’t No Silent Night’ as it’s sometimes called) is the fourth instalment of the ‘Nativity’ film series since it began in 2009. The film was released in November 2018. It stars Simon Lipkin, Celia Imrie, Craig Revel Horwood, Helen George, Ruth Jones and more. 🙂
The ‘Nativity’ film series has been interesting to watch from beginning to end at the time of this review. It’s also fascinating to discover that the ‘Nativity’ films are rated more highly by the audiences than the critics. At this stage, ‘Nativity Rocks!’ is regarded as the worst ‘Nativity’ film ever.
On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a score of 0%. Wow! That is pretty bad. With that said, there does seem to be an interest in the ‘Nativity’ film series by the general public. I think it’s more kids who like the films as opposed to adults. It makes sense and the director Debbie Issit gears the films more for kids.
But as a grown up, I can’t help wonder why the ‘Nativity’ film series doesn’t take the approach of combining witty intelligent dialogue for kids and adults at the same time rather than be more for kids than adults. I imagine the improvised making of the films on the set has plenty to do with this. 😐
I wouldn’t mind that so much, but the films have become sillier as the years go on. The first two movies are reasonably good flicks with ‘Nativity 2’ being my favourite. But it went downhill by the time ‘Nativity 3’ came along. Here in ‘Nativity 4’, the film seems to be a mess with lost opportunities.
Let me try and explain as I go through the story itself. ‘Nativity Rocks!’ returns us to St. Bernadette’s Primary School in Coventry. Also arriving in Coventry is a little boy refugee called Doru from Syria, who gets separated from his dad. Honestly, I think that is a good story idea for a fourth ‘Nativity’ film.
But it does get ruined when a new teaching assistant, Simon Lipkin as Jerry Poppy (And yes, he is the brother of Desmond Poppy from the previous three films – more on this later) comes to St. Bernadette’s to find his family. He also gets involved in ‘auditions’ for a ‘rock opera’ style of concert.
Doru receives help from Helen George as social worker Miss Shelly to fit in at St. Bernadette’s as well as Mr. Poppy in the search for his father. The Christmas musical rock production for the school meanwhile gets led by Craig Revel Horwood as highly-opinionated impresario Emmanuel Cavendish.
Now here’s the thing – the story ideas of Doru trying to find his father again as well as taking part in the rock opera concert. I’d be fine with that if the movie focused on those elements in a succinct manner without too many distractions on other characters and have more time to breathe throughout.
Sadly, I didn’t really get that in this movie. There are some nice character-driven moments in the film such as Doru making friends with Jerry Poppy and Barnaby (more on him later) and him reuniting with his father later on. But there were many distractions caused by Jerry Poppy’s antics along the way.
Also, Jerry Poppy is quite an idiot in this movie. I think the film is taking things from his point of view, especially when he narrates at the beginning and at the end of the film – Thank goodness there is narration at the beginning and end, unlike the third film – but it’s not helped when Poppy’s annoying.
I think the film also tries to cram too much into one movie and a lot of characters don’t get the amount of attention they deserve. I don’t feel like this was a problem in the first two movies and the third movie was relatively fine, but I wish the film had time to develop other characters than Poppy.
Speaking of which, Simon Lipkin is Mr. Poppy now. Don’t know why Marc Wootton didn’t come back to do the fourth film, but I guess he was tired of the film series by this point. Maybe we’ll see him again once Jerry Poppy does meet Desmond and ‘Auntie Pat’ in ‘Nativity Down Under!’ or something.
Simon Lipkin was in ‘Nativity 3’ incidentally, as he played the Chief Elf in that film. Surprised Jerry and the Chief Elf weren’t the same character. 😀 Simon Lipkin also played Desmond Poppy in ‘Nativity! The Musical’ on stage and did a small role in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘The Girl Who Died’. 🙂
I wish I could say something different about Jerry Poppy compared to Desmond, but honestly the character’s the same. In fact, I would argue Jerry Poppy is more annoying than Desmond. I wish that Simon Lipkin calmed it down a bit when Jerry Poppy had to be over-excited and was being childish.
Celia Imrie returns as Mrs. Keen from the third movie. She’s one of two characters to come from the previous three movies as most of the characters in ‘Nativity Rocks!’ are new. I believe Mrs. Keen is better as a character in this fourth film, but I still miss Pam Ferris playing Mrs. Bevan in the series.
Actually, I think there was a missed opportunity with Celia Imrie’s character in the fourth ‘Nativity’ film. You see, Mrs. Keen is elected by Emmanuel Cavendish at some point to play the Angel Gabriel. Now, I would have liked to have seen that, provided she didn’t wear that horrible purple wig she wore.
But she ends up not playing the Angel Gabriel in the rock show. Instead, it’s Jessica Hynes as Angel Matthews who plays her. I would have liked to have seen more rivalry between Mrs. Keen and Angel Matthews about who was going to play the Angel Gabriel, but it seemed the film didn’t have time for it.
Craig Revel Horwood stars as Emmanuel Cavendish, who is essentially the main villain of the movie. I don’t think he’s a very good villain either. I mean, yes, he comes across as smug and full of himself, especially when he criticises the performances of the kids who are auditioning to be in his rock show.
But I think it would’ve been better if he wasn’t so two-dimensional and more was explored in terms of his villainy. Also, he kind-of gives in too easily when he’s about to throw a dog to his death before he’s allowed to play King Herod in the show! Incidentally, I really did like Dodger the dog in the film.
Cuddles: Yes! Dodger’s my favourite character!
Also, I think there was a missed opportunity when it was revealed Jerry Poppy and Emmanuel Cavendish knew each other from long ago. Emmanuel apparently bullied Jerry as a kid. I don’t think we get to see enough of that rivalry between them when other plot elements are getting in the way.
Helen George stars as Miss Shelly, the social worker in the film. And yes, I don’t think she has a first name in the film, unless I check it out. Oh but Helen George! Why did you appear in this ‘Nativity’ film? You were doing so well in ‘Call the Midwife’! Thank goodness this ‘Nativity’ film didn’t ruin your career!
Actually, to be fair, Helen George’s character is the one I found the most convincing in the film. This is especially when she attends to Doru as a refugee. I do wish that ‘Nativity Rocks!’ was more her story than Jerry Poppy’s and she’d match Martin Freeman, David Tennant and Martin Clunes’ shoes.
But with that said, there was another missed opportunity with her character. For you see, there’s supposed to be this romance between her and the teacher Mr. Johnson. But there was no build-up to it. It’s like Leela from ‘Doctor Who’ in love with Andred in ‘The Invasion of Time’ with no build-up.
Ruth Jones stars as Farmer Beatie in the movie. I’ve seen Ruth Jones in the ‘Torchwood’ episode ‘Adrift’. You may have also seen her in the BBC sitcom ‘Gavin & Stacey’. 😀 I enjoyed her performance in this movie, though it’s fair to say she does appear late halfway in the film to contribute something.
Farmer Beatie helps Doru’s dad as well as Doru himself when they come to her farm in… um, somewhere in Wales? I’m not sure. I’d like to think it is Wales considering Beatie’s got a Welsh accent. 😀 Doru and Beatie even go in a big tractor to find his dad when he’s gone off to Coventry.
I do think maybe Ruth Jones’ character is rather wasted, since she’s there to help Doru and his dad find each other at her farm and… she does nothing else after that apart from attending the rock opera concert. I wish that Ruth Jones got a better role to make her celebrity appearance worthwhile.
Daniel Boys stars as Mr. Johnson in the film. In ‘Nativity! The Musical’ stage show, Daniel Boys played Paul Maddens. Daniel Boys’ character is essentially the Martin Freeman/David Tennant/Martin Clunes character, but he doesn’t get the central focus here and more or less plays to Jerry Poppy’s whims.
There’s Anna Chancellor as Clara Hargreaves and Hugh Dennis as Robert Hargreaves who are the parents of Rupert Turnbull as little boy Barnaby from Oakmoor School. I did find it very funny when Barnaby got annoyed by Jerry Poppy calling him ‘Barnacle’ or ‘Bumblebee’. I laughed at that scene. 🙂
Now with Barnaby’s parents, they’re meant to be workaholics who don’t take much notice of their son when at home. They don’t even notice Jerry Poppy and Doru when they’re in their big house. I think it was done too quickly in terms of how Barnaby’s parents came out from being workaholics. 😐
Talking about the little boys themselves, including Rupert Turnbull as Barnaby and Brian Bartle as Doru, I think they were very decent. They certainly perform well in the film and I would’ve liked it if we saw more of their relationship as friends without too many distractions getting in the way. 🙂
The film also features Meera Syal as Nina, who I’ve seen in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘The Hungry Earth’/’Cold Blood’ as well as the 2018 film ‘Patrick’. Jessica Hynes, who was in ‘Nativity 2’, also returns to play Angel Matthews and quite honestly, I feel she’s rather wasted appearing in this film.
There’s Vincent Franklin as the Lord Mayor as well as Ramin Karimloo as Doru’s dad, Simon Lowe as Rory B. Bellows and Zak Mahiz as Norman Clutterbuck. There’s also Jemma Churchill as Barnaby’s nanny. Jemma was in ‘The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot’ and has done some Big Finish audios.
There’s also Gabriel Vick as Hugo Alexander, the new head of music for Oakmoor School. Clearly, he’s meant to be Mr. Shakespeare’s character since Jason Watkins didn’t return for the fourth film. It’s so amazing both Marc Wootton and Jason Watkins didn’t come back to do the fourth ‘Nativity’ movie. 🙂
I do feel that the climax of the movie where the rock opera takes place to be too noisy. I’m not really one for rock music and I suppose that’s become the thing in terms of music nowadays. But honestly, I couldn’t hear the lyrics of the songs being performed, having to look them up on the DVD subtitles.
Also, the Nativity story being told in the rock opera by Jerry Poppy and St. Bernadette’s kids was very demeaning. I wish they stuck to the same story without changing things and having Doru involved. The Nativity story told in a ‘Vicar of Dibley’ episode was better compared to this film’s version of it. 🙂
In fact, that’s something I’ve not mentioned a lot in my reviews for the ‘Nativity’ film series. For the most part, I’ve been okay with the films telling the Nativity story. The first two ‘Nativity’ films did it okay, especially with some of the St. Berndette’s kids reminding people not to forget the baby boy in ‘2’. 🙂
But here, it’s like the spirit of the Christmas story got taken away in the songs being performed. I would rather watch ‘The Nativity Story’ 2006 film and be reassured by its message about the first Christmas rather than how ‘Nativity Rocks!’ ended up doing it. Quite frankly, it makes a mockery of it.
The DVD special features are as follows. There’s a ‘sing-a-long’ section containing three songs including ‘Rock Star’, ‘Our Town’ and ‘Somewhere, Somehow’. I’m surprised their version of ‘We Built This City’ wasn’t included. There’s also a making-of featurette called ‘Meet the Rock Stars’.
Okay, so is ‘Nativity Rocks!’ the worst ‘Nativity’ film ever made? In my opinion: yes. There are some good character-driven moments found in the film and I would’ve liked it if the film had time to explore more on those moments rather than just including them fleetingly and not be so distracting.
But overall, this ‘Nativity’ film is a mess. I don’t know if this is the last film of the ‘Nativity’ film series, but I think it would be best if it stopped right here. The films are getting sillier as the years go on. Unless a fifth film proves to be better, I don’t see the ‘Nativity’ film series improving any time soon.
In general, the ‘Nativity’ films feature plenty of bizarre moments as well as plenty of laugh-out-loud humour. I’m glad I’ve seen them all so far and I’ve enjoyed the talents of Martin Freeman, David Tennant, Martin Clunes, Catherine Tate and Helen George in them as special Christmas outings here.
‘Nativity 2’ with David Tennant is definitely my favourite out of the four ‘Nativity’ films so far. I would rather watch only that out of the four ‘Nativity’ films just for the sake of David Tennant appearing it. Aside from that, the ‘Nativity’ films do seem to be an acquired taste of Christmas films.
Merry Christmas everyone! 😀
‘Nativity Rocks!’ rating – 3/10
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