Fatman Trailer: Mel Gibson Is A Bitter, Hard-Drinking, Gun-Touting Santa Claus

Saban Films has released an official trailer for the new action-comedy called Fatman, which stars none other than Mel Gibson as Chris Cringle. Yes, Mad Max is playing Santa Claus, or as he’s sometimes referred to, the Fatman. But trust us, this isn’t the jolly ole’ Saint Nick you think it is.

To save his declining business, Chris Cringle, also known as Santa Claus, is forced into a partnership with the U.S. military. Making matters worse, Chris gets locked into a deadly battle of wits against a highly-skilled assassin (Walton Goggins), hired by a precocious 12-year-old after receiving a lump of coal in his stocking. ‘Tis the season for Fatman to get even, in the action-comedy that keeps on giving.

Check out the trailer for Fatman below:

The casting alone is a sign that everyone involved is in on the joke, as Gibson is among the last actors anyone would think of as “jolly,” while Goggins seems well-suited to slay the man in the sleigh. The whole thing is quite effective because it embraces it very silly, and very violent B-movie tendencies. Fatman is both co-written and co-directed by American filmmakers Eshom Nelms & Ian Nelms, directors of Squirrel Trap, Lost on Purpose, Waffle Street, and Small Town Crime previously. In addition to Gibson and Goggins, the movie also stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste (no idea how they scored her into this flick).

Gibson, who has returned to working in Hollywood films in recent years, is next attached to direct an update of the movie The Wild Bunch for Warner. Bros. Whenever a new Gibson film pops up it’s important to remind everyone of his anti-Semitic rant in 2006 and the racist comments he made on tape in 2010. No, yours truly would never really get along with Gibson in real life but when it comes to films like this, separating the art from the artist is rather easy. The on-screen persona of Gibson is oftentimes charming, and in later years his solemn brow has grown extensive wear and taken on a new kind of grumpy, taking-names B-movie level character actor. He may never star in big-budget Hollywood fare anymore so when he takes up jobs like this or Force of Nature, it’s easier to take or leave whatever he puts out. As for Fatman, in the time of COVID, the choice to check it out is entirely up to you more than ever. Check out the trailer for Fatman below, too:

Fatman in select US theaters starting November 13th, then on VOD starting November 17th.

Source: Saban

Christmas Curmudgeons: GB’s Favorite Holiday Villains

Christmas is almost here, and its time to celebrate the holidays by taking a look at some of our favorite Christmas curmudgeons!

Many a holiday tradition involve annual viewings of various holiday classics that embody the spirit of Christmas. These films almost always feature a heroic character who perseveres through hardship or learns a valuable lesson due to the spirit of the season, and countless families have bonded over these classic films for years.

But where would these heroic characters be if not for the Christmas villains who threaten the merry holidays time and time again? And by villains, we mean a bit more than a warm breeze that takes out Frosty or the frozen pole that tantalizes youthful tongues. No, we will be taking a look at the vilest of the villains that we watch each and every year to celebrate the holidays.

Weird & Wacky World of Comics: Christmas Special!

So December is here and whether you celebrate Christmas or not, it is hard to avoid the tell tale signs of the coming festive season. Shops are cram-packed with tons of Christmas related items and ads about the holiday season spring up every few seconds. The comic industry is not one to shy away from this either and churns out a selection of festive comics for young and old, sometimes with some very strange results. So in this special edition of Weird and Wacky World of Comics we celebrate the strange, the wonderful and the just plain disturbing Christmas comics in the gallery below. You never know it may give you some ideas to pop on your Christmas or it may be an alternative to watching constant Christmas adverts flash by your eyes. Either way it is certainly a better alternative than watching some of the rubbish that gets put on during the holiday season!

Look for more Festive Holiday articles throughout Grizzly Bomb this December!

#6 – Countdown to Christmas: SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT PART 2

Few, if any Christmas movies ever really exemplify the true spirit of the holiday. Too often we are inundated with commercial messages, and magical reindeer, and a complete and utter lack of brutal murders. Well, that’s not the case in Lee Harry‘s masterpiece Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2, which focused on what really matters at Christmas time – punishing the naughty.

In the first Silent Night Deadly Night, Billy grows up in an orphange and is a rather unhappy child, perhaps it’s cause Santa Claus (the real one I assume) shot his dad and raped and murdered his mom. Right in front of him. Yikes!  That must make sitting on Mall Santa’s lap an even more terrifying experience than normal. Anyhow, once Billy grows up, he decides that he too will dress like Santa and murder people who he deems to be ‘naughty’. It all seems justified to me…

In Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2, Billy’s younger brother Ricky decides to take up the mantle of ‘murderous Santa’.  This is particularly interesting since the murder of his parents, which is the event that inspired his brother to kill, he was far too young to remember. That means, since he credits the same event as his inspiration, the stories told to him as a kid must’ve been pretty explicit.

Ricky is so intense…

Now director Lee Harry made a pretty interesting choice here, he shot the 2nd movie using the mostly recycled footage from the first movie as Ricky has flashback after flashback to events he was not present for. Like Brody’s wife in the 4th Jaws movie. So after Ricky, who never says a word without furiously moving his eyebrows, tells us about all the stuff Billy did in the first movie, it’s time for him to flashback to some of his own kills. Amazingly, no matter how far back a story goes, Ricky never seems age. Anyhow, we hear about him killing a man with an umbrella and that’s where it all began.

Eventually Ricky stops with the flashbacks and starts getting in some fresh kills, and one in particular has become increasingly popular since the invent of YouTube…

So as you can see, the Internet really appreciates strong acting. The sheer power behind Ricky’s eyes on Garbage Day is unforgettable and for that reason, as well as the respect paid here to the first movie, I give SNDN2 a solid 5/5.

#12 – Countdown to Christmas: SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS

We’ve had a wide variety of films in the Christmas countdown so far (some of which I’d never even heard of, never mind seen) but none of them are as craptastic as 1964’s Santa Claus Conquers The Martians.