A brand-new festive film has soared to the top of the streaming charts after being made available for at-home viewing.
Boasting a star-studded cast led by Kiefer Sutherland, Rebel Wilson and Danny Dyer, Tinsel Town follows Sutherland’s Bradley Mack, a fading Hollywood star whose career is on its last gasp.
After taking the other gig his agent can get him, Mack thinks he’s heading to England for some reputation-reviving theatre – only to find himself in a Yorkshire town’s panto production of Cinderella, playing Buttons.
A far-fetched but ripe-for-comedy premise, Tinsel Town also stars Sir Derek Jacobi, Jason Manford, Katherine Ryan, Maria Friedman, Alice Eve, Asim Chaudhry, Mawaan Rizwan, Meera Syal and Lucien Laviscount.
Fans have branded the new film ‘hard to resist’ and urged people that it’s ‘worth a watch’.
Tinsel Town has been trending in the UK since its release on Sky Cinema and NOW in the UK, beating back the likes of The Grinch and Love Actually on the platform’s most-watched movies list.
‘Tinsel Town is a great Christmas film, love letter to panto and THE Maria Friedman is in it, loved it,’ announced Jenny on X, while another fan echoed her praise, describing the film as ‘an absolute cheese fest’ – clearly in the best possible way.
Meanwhile a user calling himself ‘Christmas George’ for the festive season rated Tinsel Town a ‘9/10’ and added: ‘You can tell they had fun making this movie and it’s quite lovely.’
If you weren’t getting the vibes already of the kind of cosy gentle comedy this is, Anna branded it ‘silly and predictable but very festive and enjoyable’.
There was praise too for leading man Sutherland and his willingness to throw himself into the fish-out-of-water Hollywood diva role.
‘Kiefer Sutherland just threw himself in and was great,’ noted Steve as another fan admitted to watching the movie ‘expecting to hate it’, but enjoying it instead as ‘I do have a soft spot for Kiefer, always my favourite vampire’, a reference to his 1987 cult classic The Lost Boys.
‘Great Xmas movie that is destined to become a classic. Kiefer makes it all work with his performance. Highly recommend!’ added Derek R in an audience review on aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
Some critics were also overcome with warm festive feelings toward Tinsel Town, as The Hollywood Reporter’s review agreed: ‘Sutherland makes it all work, delivering a thoroughly winning performance that makes you buy into the overall hokum.’
Have you seen Tinsel Town yet? What did you think?
-
Yes – I loved it!
-
Yes – but it wasn’t for me
-
No, not yet
‘Seeing Kiefer Sutherland embrace the madness of a British play is a unique delight, playing to Sutherland’s charm while also embracing the simplicity of the premise,’ added Collider (whose critic we’ll politely remind that this is a ‘pantomime’ specifically and not just a play).
‘It’s stuffed to the brim with genre clichés, but a funny script, committed performances, and warm playful tone make this festive comedy hard to resist,’ added critic Kat Halstead.
Others found themselves less charmed though, with a few viewers on Rotten Tomatoes claiming it was the worst Christmas film they’d seen.
Tea reckoned it was ‘impressively bad’, while others brought up Tinsel Town’s predictability – which was considered both an unwatchable negative as well as an element that others could embrace – or at least, happily ignore.
Unfortunately, one part of the movie that did come in for almost unanimous criticism was Australian star Wilson’s ‘insulting’ and ‘dreadful’ Yorkshire accent as local choreographer Jill, who is juggling custody of daughter Cara (played by Robbie Williams’ daughter Theodora) with her dodgy ex Kieran (Dyer).
As with many of these light-hearted festive capers, from Netflix to Prime and Hallmark, it often depends on your mood as to how receptive you’ll be to their tried-and-tested formula.
Tinsel Town is streaming on NOW.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
