Review of Santa's Summer House

The premise: a bunch of unsatisfied people get lost on the way to a resort, and end up at the same mansion featured in "A Talking Cat?!?". While they stay there, Santa and his wife teach them the real meaning of Christmas, despite it being high Summer. Add to that the fact that several of the cast of this sedate tale are primarily known for high-octane martial arts flicks, and this could really have been awful. In reality, it is quite enjoyable. The standard of acting is mixed, but the enthusiasm is there. Daniel Bernhardt has one of the better roles, playing a sarcastic engineer. He and Cynthia Rothrock (as Mrs Claus) seem to be having the most fun. Being a David DeCoteau movie, there are some scenes of shirtless men, but unlike some of his output, that isn't the entire premise of this film. In fact, it is all in context. The croquet marathon... well yes, that could have been heavily edited. But overall, this is neither a masterpiece nor the car-crash one might expect. Mildly preposterous but genuinely likeable.