Hiya!

Well, it’s that time of the year! Once again, we here at Third World Geeks devote the entire I’ll Review Anything section of the website to reviewing Holiday stuff. Whether it be movies or television specials, we’ll be focusing on them here in Holiday-Palooza! Like with most years, Netflix has been a godsend as they tend to get into the Holiday spirit as they pump out Christmas themed film after Christmas themed film during the month of December.

As of this writing, Netflix has already released a ton of movies filled with Christmas cheer and I had my pick of the litter. However, out of all of them, there was one which certainly caught my attention as, in all honesty, it had one of the silliest premises I’ve seen for a Christmas movie as of late.

Of course, I’m talking about Hot Frosty.

Just because it made me look twice, that doesn’t mean Hot Frosty is going to be good. Heck, it might be hot garbage! So, what did I think of this soon-to-be Netflix “classic” of a film? Read on to find out!

Before we do go to the review proper, I’ll have to say this is going to be totally safe to read as this will be a SPOILER FREE review. Although Netflix released Hot Frosty way back in the middle of November, there are probably a whole bunch of folks who have been putting off watching it and waited for December to see it. So, if you haven’t seen this yet, this will be SPOILER FREE! Now, on with the review!

Hot Frosty takes places in the little town of Hope Springs where a young widower named Kathy who isn’t taking good care of herself after her husband’s death. Her friends give her a scarf to encourage her to go out back into the world. Still not feeling it, Kathy hangs the scarf onto a supposedly hunky ice sculpture. Later that night, the ice sculpture comes to life. Can this new undead snowman bring the passion and heat back into Kathy’s life?

What I find… amusing about the recent Netflix produced Holiday films is how they can’t decide whether to be more like Hallmark or Disney when it comes to what tone to use. Should they be incredibly wholesome and cliche like the very safe Hallmark Christmas flicks or should they be silly and have some awkward comedic bits like with Disney? Netflix usually says, “screw it” and does both in the same film and Hot Frosty is not an exception. In here, you have to, well, hallmarks of a classic Hallmark holiday film, with a small town and a female protagonist looking for love. You also have the markings of a Disney Christmas movie, with a fantastical premise of a snowman coming to life and rather insane characters filling the screen.

Does the mix work out for Hot Frosty? Well, yes and no. I mean, they didn’t really do a good job of mixing the contrasting tones so you kind of feel like something’s off. Yet, it also works in Hot Frosty’s favor because, in all honesty, you can’t really take the movie all that seriously. It comes off awkward and, because you know it’s not supposed to be all that serious, you just kind of go with the flow.

I do have some issues with, well, not the acting itself. Rather, the casting choices didn’t really work for me. I like Lacey Chabert for what she is and I’ve seen her live-action work in Mean Girls and the Hallmark Mystery Movie series, Crossword Mysteries. In Hot Frosty, she just comes off as a blank slate and never really giving the role anything to make a note off. To be fair, the script doesn’t really give her anything substantial to chew on as she’s never given any funny lines or situations. Still, Lacey Chabert just feels like she’s there and nothing more.

The titular “Hot Frosty” is played by Dustin Milligan and I do have to question his “hotness” status. Sure, he does have a really good body but… he just has a pretty goofy face I just couldn’t take seriously! I guess it also works for him as, well, Jack, the “hot frosty,” is supposed to be a goofy character. Still, I can’t really get in a film where he’s supposed to be the “hot frosty” of the movie when I don’t see him as a “hot frosty,” you know what I mean? To be fair, I guess Dustin Milligan’s performance is… cute for what it is but I just can’t buy into the idea that he’s actually hot with that goofy grin.

As this is a comedy film set during the Holidays, a lot of Hot Frosty’s success deals with if it did make me laugh. I wouldn’t say it made me laugh but I will say it did extract a chuckle or two out of me. Some of it because they were genuinely making me laugh but the majority was because of how stupid and cliche the film is. The ending especially made me giggle a bit because of how ludicrous the entire townsfolk react to… well, this is a SPOILER FREE review so I can’t say what it was. Suffice to say, the folks at Netflix didn’t know how to end the movie so they just did whatever that was! So, in the laughs department, Hot Frosty inadvertently is a success?

There are also a lot of weird questions which entered my brain while watching this movie, such as “why was someone allowed to sculpt a naked snow sculpture for a contest?” and “why did they show that scene where Kathy was saying this little girl was her favorite customer at the start when that little girl never showed up in the movie afterwards?” I chalk it all up to the B-movie experience but, in a way, that what makes Hot Frosty kind of a blast to watch. It clearly didn’t care about logic so why should you?

Do I recommend you watch Hot Frosty? Well, if you’re into B-grade “so bad it’s good” types of movies, yeah, I do. It’s kind of a relief to just turn off your brain and watch something incredibly stupidly entertaining on Netflix once in a while and Hot Frosty fills that role perfectly. If you want something a little more serious with some heartfelt moments which will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, Hot Frosty may help with the latter because of how dumb and childlike it comes across but the former part about serious heartfelt moments is lacking. I say go watch Hot Frosty and let the pleasant dumbness wash over you to cleanse you from all the seriousness of the past year. You need to rest your brain once in a while and Hot Frosty may just be the right way to do it.

Byee!

Have you seen Hot Frosty? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!