Stealing Christmas Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		2.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Stealing Christmas Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 14, 2023

Stealing Christmas is a by-the-books story of a big city thief who finds that small town charm, the Christmas spirit, and new friends steal his heart and reform him into someone other the lifelong criminal he's always been. Sorry for the spoiler, but you know the deal with these sorts of movies. Stealing Christmas was made for TV, originally airing on USA and later playing on ABC Family as something of a Christmastime staple. It's a fairly substandard picture all things considered, struggling to move beyond the rote elements that play like a lesser version of a Hallmark movie. Audiences looking for something with mild Christmas spirit and maybe a bit of bite beyond the usual seasonal fare will find it mildly agreeable, but this is far from a Christmas classic or, even, a film that's going to go into seasonal rotations come December.

Jack Clayton (Tony Danza) is a big city, small time thief whose favorite targets include shopping malls and other relatively low-risk, low reward type locations. However, his latest bust goes wrong. Despite casing the place and going by the book, security arrives early, and the store opens early, leaving him and his partner out to dry. Jack steals a Santa suit and barely escapes. He pays $50 for a bus ticket to anywhere. He falls asleep and wakes up in small town where he is greeted by Noelle Gibson (Angela Goethals), a young girl who believes that he is a newly hired Santa Claus. Jack decides to forge a new identity and try his best to settle in while also sizing up the area for a potential big score. Though one of the townsfolk is suspicious of him, most take to him, including his boss, and Noelle's mother, Sarah (Lea Thompson). Will Jack find that he has a change of heart in this new role, or will he choose to simply use it as cover to pull off the perfect crime?

Stealing Christmas summed up in one word and two letters? Eh. This isn't a joyous holiday film, but neither is it a humbug harbinger of the worst that the genre has to offer. As a made for TV movie it's very flat and static, lacking much character or cinematic excellence, simply choosing to structure things together in the easiest and most efficient means possible. The result is a film of mild interest built on a meager foundation that lacks real bite given the criminal workings taking place behind the scenes. Unlike something like Bad Santa that pushed the envelope, Stealing Christmas is forced to stay in the family friendly lane even if its core elements desperately want to point it in another direction. The material doesn't work well as it's structured, in large part because of a bland script and disinterested actors.

The film's biggest draw is its cast, not exactly A-list material but offering a couple of recognizable names and likeable faces in Danza and Thompson who don't have much chemistry and who don't put much effort into building their characters to any level of satisfactory depth. Of course, the script offers them precious little -- next to nothing, really -- with which to work. The characters are flatly drawn and lack any real significant character qualities. Jack has a love affair with model trains, but it's simply a "thing" to bring the character around. The leads are little more than cutout characters for the genre and lack the heart and realism of even the sappiest and least believable of Hallmark's offerings. Danza and Thompson do just enough to get the movie to where it's going, but don't expect much in the way of work on the individual end or any real spark of interest in their growing relationship, because it's very rote and dull.

Stealing Christmas Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

What a disappointment. Universal releases Stealing Christmas to Blu-ray with a 1080p transfer that is clearly sourced form an old master that was prepared for the DVD era. This looks like so many of Universal's older catalogue titles that have been lazily dropped onto Blu-ray with little care or concern for the final product. It plainly has that made for TV movie look about it. It's flat and visually unstimulating. The elements are very subpar. Noise is dense and definition is rather poor, looking flat and bland and lifeless. At best, textures satisfy basic HD requirements, appearing firmer than an SD counterpart would, but don't expect more than serviceable HD crispness and clarity here. Colors are decent enough with the red Santa suit being the most obvious example of tonal punch on display. It's vivid if it's not a little bit on the hard side, lacking nuance. Much the same can be said of the full color spectrum on display; bright and full enough but never really picture perfect. Black levels flutter all over the place, ranging from mildly pale to slightly crushed. White balance is decent. Skin tones look natural enough.

Stealing Christmas Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Stealing Christmas arrives on Blu-ray with a standard issue DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The presentation is adequate in all areas, boasting sufficient front end stretch to music and effects. Musical clarity is passable but not very lifelike. It pushes far enough to the edges but lacks absolute clarity and finessed engagement. Ambient effects are passable but struggle to hold realism. There is some imbalance to elements, including various atmospheric effects which seem to rise and lower. Listen around the 59:30 mark, a conversation in a tree lot, for an example. Dialogue is the name of the game here, and it is presented with good front-center positioning, good prioritization, and sufficient clarity.

Stealing Christmas Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Stealing Christmas contains no supplemental content. In fact, there is not even a top menu screen. Film playback begins immediately upon disc insertion (following the usual FBI warnings, etc.). The pop-up menu offers only the option to toggle subtitles on and off. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover. Home video releases don't get anymore bare bones than this one.

Stealing Christmas Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Stealing Christmas lines up a few items that would point to something better than the finished product: a halfway decent premise, a couple of good lead actors, and Christmas, but the film just kind of meanders about in a dead zone of actor disinterest and lackadaisical filmmaking. It's watchable but it's also entirely forgettable. Universal's disc is featureless. Video is troubled and audio isn't any great shakes. Skip it unless it's on sale for Christmas at a steal of a price.