2 stars.

This thriller feels like someone recalled the endless "Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?" debate and thought that mashing up the Bruce Willis classic with Home Alone and one of the many cynical portrayals of Santa Claus would make for a can't-miss hit.

The first thing to note is that, Home Alone referencing and touches of schmaltz notwithstanding, this is not a movie for kids. "Violent" is in the title for a reason. Most of the characters are thoroughly obnoxious and there's a lot of swearing (Santa uses quite a few "naughty" words himself). Most awkwardly, the filmmakers try to meld violence, suspense, black comedy and heartwarming family drama into one story. They didn't put enough effort in: the result is overlong and disappointing though watchable.

On Christmas Eve, the real Santa Claus (played by David Harbour from Stranger Things) is drinking despondently in a bar, taking a break from his duties. He's disillusioned by kids' evergrowing greed (not thinking he might have had something to do with it.)

Meanwhile, the Lightstone clan gather at the estate of wealthy matriarch Gertrude (Beverly D'Angelo). She's one of those parents who uses money to extort devotion from her adult children. Daughter Alva (Edi Patterson) and her actor husband Morgan Steele (Cam Gigandet) suck up to Gertrude while their teenage son Bertrude (Alexander Elliott) - so named in a naked attempt to curry favour - spends his time online.

More sympathetic is Gertrude's son Jason (Alex Hassell) who has persuaded his estranged wife Linda (Alexis Louder) to come in order to give their daughter Trudy (Leah Brady) a nice Christmas. So far, so awkward, but things get soon get much worse.

A group of ruthless mercenaries led by "Scrooge" (John Leguizamo) invades the house. They know there's a huge amount of money in the basement vault, and they want it.

Things look grim until Santa makes his way to the Lightstone estate and realises what's happening. Can he channel his inner Bruce Willis and use both smarts and strengths to save the day?

Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola (Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters) has a very uneven screenplay with which to work. Sonic the Hedgehog writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller tried, as noted, to cover a lot of ground, not too successfully.

There are longeurs including seemingly endless segments of Santa trying out a massage chair and conversing magically on a walkie-talkie with Trudy. There are also a lot of contrivances. One minute Santa is supernaturally powerful, the next he's humanly vulnerable, and it's vaguely explained that he doesn't know how "Christmas magic" works (how long's he been at this job?)

Technical credits here are solid - the score incorporates snatches of Christmas carols, the production design looks lavish as befitting the wealthy estate in which the film is set - though the special effects are sometimes good rather than great.

The actors are all capable but the characters they're given are mostly thin: they, and we, deserved better. Leguizamo is quality casting as the main villain but the attempt at a tragic backstory falls flat. Most of the Lightstone family don't progress beyond selfish snarkiness and are granted neither wit nor convincing redemption. Brady is appealing as the little girl who ends up as inventive as Macaulay Culkin in setting up booby traps but there's more sadism than slapstick here. Santa also dishes out a lot of brutality but then the villains here are naughty indeed. Maybe a bigger, responsive audience than the one I had at Dendy would have added to the enjoyment.

The film should have stuck to its guns, literally and figuratively, and stayed a dark action comedy rather than trying to tug at the heartstrings.