Jack Black could do no wrong throughout the last few decades. Many of his movies bombed at the box office or sank with critics, but everyone still loved him. His band had ups and downs, but he was still affable. As more of his films feel like corporate garbage and his political stances get him in trouble, a lot of his fanbase has lost patience. His latest entry, Dear Santa, is not an argument in his favor.
Dear Santa comes from director Bobby Farrelly, one half of the legendary Farrelly brothers. Bobby and his brother Peter owned the 1990s with films like Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary. They quickly became less influential as they pumped out stuff like Osmosis Jones and Hall Pass. Bobby made his solo debut with Champions for Netflix last year. It’s not a total failure, but it’s not the glory day either. Dear Santa is a considerable fall for a Farrelly.
Jack Black Plays the Devil on Paramount Plus’s Top Ten
Have you ever noticed that “Santa” and “Satan” are very similar words? If you just moved that “N” from the middle to the exterior, you’d refer to a completely different mythological figure. Of course, “Santa Claus” is a shoddy anglicization of “Sinterklaas,” the Dutch term for St. Nicholas of Myra. Satan comes from the Hebrew “śāṭān,” which means “accuser” or “adversary.” The word first referred to a specific figure in the Hebrew Bible, which depicted him as a prosecutorial figure who condemned sinners under God’s jurisdiction. He would gradually evolve into the embodiment of evil as Christianity emerged. Santa is a saint who grew from humble tales of kindness to children, while Satan is a devil who only became more evil. Dear Santa fails to address any of those narrative details. Instead, it’s a terrible comedy about a kid writing a letter to the wrong dude in red.
Dear Santa is utterly unfunny garbage. Jack Black does his usual kids’ movie routine, which has grown very stale. I’d like to think A Minecraft Movie will be the final boss of his worst impulses, but it’s likely to be another brick in that wall. In films like Goosebumps and The House With A Clock in its Walls, he seems to be on autopilot. Dear Santa is not Black’s lowest score on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s not even in the bottom five. It’s the seventh-lowest score on the site. With a 24%, it earned more than twice the praise of Borderlands, a failure Black barely contributed to. He was just an annoying voice in the background of a cacophony of garbage. He’s the main event of this particular failure. Black has done a lot better, but he’s just barely done worse.
Dear Santa packs everything wrong with the Farrelly brothers’ old gross-out routine into one mess. Jack Black might never make anything as compelling or artistically fulfilling as School of Rock again. He might never make anything as fun as Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny again either. It’s hard to see him fall back on his most boring output, but at least he’s willing to break up his beloved band to avoid offending his political enemies. That decision makes it a lot easier to lose interest.
