"A Merry Friggin' Christmas" is a bittersweet experience, as it is one of Robin Williams's last films. Williams was a talented comedian and thespian, but tended toward unsympathetic roles late in his career, such as "The Angriest Man in Brooklyn," "World's Greatest Dad" and AMFC. Instead of employing his natural charisma to engage the audience, Williams manages to quickly alienate the viewers. Unfortunately, while Williams eventually becomes slightly more sympathetic, none of the other performers seems particularly sympathetic either. Rather than assembling a cast of quirky but likably eccentric individuals, the filmmakers present a group of weirdos and misfits whose unique personality traits are more offsetting than endearing. Their goals are ill-defined, modest to the point of irrelevance and largely unsympathetic and irrelevant. It is difficult to care about any of the characters or to sympathize with their objectives, with the exception of a couple of minor characters like the wino Santa and the service station owner. Production values are adequate. Performances are okay, but limited by poorly conceived, shallow, one-dimensional, unsympathetic characters. The moral seems lost in the confusion. It seems to have something to do with balancing childhood fantasies with the reality of growing up. In the end, the protagonist either achieves or fails to achieve his objective and the filmmakers seem to approve of the outcome, but the moral comes across as flaccid. There is one character who functions as a sort of mystical agent of change, but his impact is limited by the somewhat feeble ending. The biggest flaw concerns a gift that the protagonist claims he made himself, but his claim seems less than credible. He hasn't demonstrated or displayed any of the skills that would be required, so his claim seems a convenient artifice by the screenwriter.

I saw "A Merry Friggin' Christmas", starring Joel McHale-The Soup_tv, Ted; Lauren Graham-Evan Almighty, Bad Santa; Candice Bergen-Boston Legal_tv, Miss Congeniality and Robin Williams-The Crazy Ones_tv, One Hour Photo.This is one of the last 3 movies Robin Williams made before he died on August 11, 2014-This was made before Night at the Museum:Secret of the Tomb and there is one more that he did voice work on as a dog, called Absolutely Anything. This is a comedy where Robin plays a little different than what you are probably used to seeing him in. It is Christmas time and Robin is a grumpy old man in a dysfunctional family that is grumpy because his family, including his son Joel, is coming to visit for the holidays. Joel and his wife, Lauren, want to make a perfect Christmas for their son-it may be his last one to believe in Santa Clause-and of course, everything goes wrong. Besides all the bickering going on, Joel discovers that he left his son's presents at home, which is an 8 hour round trip, if he wants to make it back by sunrise. So Joel and Robin take a road trip while trying to work out their family problems. Candice plays Robin's wife. There are several recognizable actors in cameos; see if you can recognize who is playing the Hobo Santa. At the end of the movie is a dedication to Robin and how he made us all laugh-just not in this movie, though. There is also a scene after the credits involving two other characters, singing in a truck. As I said earlier, it is a different type of role for Robin so if you want a funny send off to remember him by, you will not get it here. It's not a bad movie, just different. It's rated "PG-13" for language and crude humor and has a running time of 1 hour & 28 minutes. It's not Robin Williams' best work but I liked it enough that I would buy it on DVD.

Amongst the many tributes paid in the wake of Robin William's tragic death, one close friend said one of the contributing factors may have been the paucity of good roles for him later on in his career. Watching A Merry Friggin' Christmas proves the words probably weren't just speculation.You know how it's gonna go from the off... They'll be a big family gathering, everything that can go wrong, WILL go wrong... But somehow, by hook or by crook, they'll make it together and, despite the turmoil and the arguments, prove they LURVE each other. It's a formula as old as the hills, but done right can provide for a heartwarming Yuletide treat.Not in this case. The 'complications' thrown up by the plot feel arbitrary and forced, such as the youngest child getting stoned on 40 year old pickles, and seeing a talking snowman in his snowglobe. Not funny, or cute. And what the scene where the adults think they've run over a drunk in a Santa Suit, and are about five seconds away from chopping up his corpse with a chainsaw before he rouses? In a black comedy, this MAY have worked... But considering how silly everything else on show here is, it just feels in bad taste.Questionable behaviour abound, too. If you hired a foreign bloke to housesit for you while your brood is away for the holidays... and you found out he invited his ENTIRE FAMILY round your place to spend the week there without your permission, and they subsequently messed the place up and opened ALL your five year old son's gifts... Would you a) Kick them out and call immigration or b) Leave them to it, and give them ALL your lad's presents... save one? Guess which option this film takes. So... encouraging illegal residency... willful vandalism... and rewarding the perpetrators by handing over your offspring's presents to the squatters. It's safe to say, this movie's idea of a goodwill gesture at Christmas and mine are mighty dissimilar.Robin tries... He really does... But even at his peak he would have struggled with such weak material. The producers are so desperate for laughs they even plumb the depths (pun intended) and make his occupation a toilet salesman. This leads to a trillion and one bathroom jokes, which are about as crude and relevant to Xmas as you'd expect. Here's one more for ya... Guess what I'm going to do with this movie? *DROPS IN U-BEND AND PUSHES FLUSH* 4/10

I can't quite say if I enjoyed this movie or not. I initially wanted to see it because of it starring Robin Williams. (RIP) But then I saw the rest of the cast listing and was locked in on my decision. However, the movie itself left me with a mix of emotions. For a movie staring two hilarious actors, Hale and Williams, the mood was just a little too serious throughout. And even the humor was clouded in a way by something more depressing. There were funny parts to be sure, but it wasn't nearly as funny as I'd have hoped for. The storyline was decent except for the underlying current of utter despair that simply oozed out of this movie's pores. So, yeah, not my favorite movie by any means, but it had its moments. I'm really sad to think of it as being the last one we'll get from the great Robin Williams. I was hoping for something at the end of the credits, and in that I was not disappointed. The dedication to Williams was very touching and sweet.