Nativity Rocks!

Another Christmas, another saccharin dose of cute kids, songs and slapstick. The fourth in the increasingly tiresome but seemingly unstoppable Nativity series sees plans for a children's Christmas rock opera threatening (but never quite managing) to bring some School of Rock-type pep to proceedings. The momentum is largely lost as the film spirals off into improbable subplots about a Syrian refugee boy and a poor little rich kid. More irritatingly, there's still way too much creepy classroom-assistant schtick as Marc Wootton's franchise constant Mr Poppy is here replaced by long-lost brother Jerry (Simon Lipkin). However, the film's relentlessly upbeat awfulness can bludgeon even the most cynical of grown-ups into some sort of submission, while its lowbrow slapstick will find the same favour with younger kids as did the first three films. Strictly Come Dancing fans may also be minded to check out the film debut of the programme's fearsome judge Craig Revel Horwood.