8-Bit Christmas - A Kid-friendly Christmas Movie with Simple Story & Heart Warming Ending

During last weekend, my wife and I decided to watch another movie on Saturday night. It was after we saw 2 new films in a row, so the movie marathon still continued for us that day. After the intensity of the second movie, we chose a light Christmas themed film that was released just few days earlier on HBO Go. OK, I'll just get on with it then.

Brief Story Line

Story was told from the point of view of Jake Doyle (Neil Patrick Harris - Doogie Howser, M. D. TV series, Downsizing etc) who was sharing his childhood experience back in 1988 to his daughter Annie (Sophia Reid-Gantzert) during Christmas eve. Young Jake (Winslow Fegley - Nightbooks etc) was still living with his mother (Jude Diane Raphael - Long Shot etc), father Joe Doyle (Steve Zahn - The White Lotus TV series etc) and younger sister Lizzy (Bellaluna Resnick).

Together with his best friends, Jake were into playing Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) which was very hype at that time. However, the only one who owned it was a spoiled rich kid who made the kids endure being bullied in order to play it. Hence Jake and his friends tried their best to get a Nintendo by whatever methods they could use.

So what would happen to Jake and friends? Find them all in this kid-friendly Christmas movie.

End of Brief Story Line

This movie interest me because of 2 reasons. First is Neil Patrick Harris whom my wife and I liked his characterization as Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother comedy series. Second is because it was set in the 1980s. Now the first factor was fine as Neil managed to give fun story telling. Even though he did not have large screen time as the story focused on his young self, but I thought it was sufficient. While the second factor was OK but other than the Nintendo (and the game they played), the 80s feel did not seem too strong.

In term of story, this movie was pretty straight forward. It has got a very simple premise of how a bunch of kids do whatever they could to have a Nintendo. The movie also felt a bit light in particular during the time when they were playing the Nintendo, or their ongoing mission to acquire it. However, it did have a wonderful moral message towards the end plus few surprising moments that I thought were quite touching (which I know affected my wife). And those scenes were what made it felt more like a Christmas movie as they warmed our hearts. 

For a comedy movie, this one was quite OK with some amusing moments involving the kids. It was pretty fun looking at them doing things that usually only kids would do. Btw, Jake's parents also brought some light in here, especially Steve Zahn who was accustomed to play in comedic role. There was also the appearance of David Cross (Kungfu Panda 3, Alvin and the Chipmunks movies etc) who I believed was cast to bring more fun, though his presence did not really have that effect. In fact, I thought his character was a bit out of place. The young cast who played Jake's friends were mostly OK. But the one who I thought quite stood out would be Max Malas who played as Jake Farmer. I am sure you would know why I said this if you have seen this movie. 

Overall I thought that this one was interesting and heart warming enough as a Christmas movie, in particular the ending. It is a kid friendly movie as it focused on the adventure of kids and it might also bring some nostalgic feeling to those who grew up in the 80s (or those who had the experience of playing video game at that time). From the closing credit, my wife noticed the name Kevin Jakubowski mentioned more than once, and apparently the film was based on the book written by him. So if you are looking for movie with qualities as I mentioned earlier, then you should be able to enjoy this one.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars