Get woke, go broke

An anti-Brexit Christmas movie (yes, really) has bombed at theaters, forcing Universal, the studio that produced it, to cut its losses and pull the plug.

In a short sighted attempt to promote “kindness” at Christmas, the film, which was co-written by British actress Emma Thompson, adopts a lecturing ‘woke’ attitude, and heavily pushes an anti-Brexit theme, as well as other PC talking points.

The reviews tell the tale. The Sun’s Dan Wootton wrote that “Last Christmas is the worst festive film I have ever seen … It’s a woke, remoaning, overly politically correct mess of a movie that manages to suck every inch of fun, joy and togetherness out of the season where we should be jolly.”

The now left leaning Rolling Stone wrote that “Last Christmas is bad. Incredibly, shockingly, monumentally bad…The kind of bad where you might literally hear the tolerance messaging — same-sex unions, homelessness, anti-immigrant prejudice, Brexit — being ticked off a checklist were it not drowned out by the sound of everyone patting themselves on the back.”

Oof, that stings.

US Weekly posited that “Perhaps actress-co-screenwriter Emma Thompson realized the romance was a dud. This would explain why she decided to cram in about 12 assorted subplots — including the plight of homelessness, a closeted lesbian sister, alcoholism, serious cardiovascular issues, Yeoh’s romance with a Swedish man who likes sauerkraut and immigrant shame in the age of Brexit.”

Other reviews called the film “brutally unfunny” and “a beautifully wrapped Christmas gift that’s filled with rotten turkey leftovers”

One of the only positive reviews came from NPR. which still only managed to describe it as ‘pleasant’. Go figure.

Thompson, who also managed to find time to star in the film in between flying thousands of miles to lecture people on the streets of London about a ‘climate emergency’, attempted to defend the shambles, arguing that it would have been “psychotic” not to have included Brexit in the Christmas film.

“I think [the political references] are very lightly brushed in. Because our main character is the daughter of immigrants, it would be very difficult to tell this story without mentioning, at least, the fear that people have who are immigrants with Brexit.” Thompson claimed.

“Because it’s set in a very particular time as well, it’s set in 2016, we couldn’t avoid it. Having it not there would’ve been slightly psychotic. And I think what’s more important about what’s under the fun of the movie is a message about kindness.” she added.

It’s quite clear, however, that people simply do not want a lesson in how to be politically correct injected into their entertainment.

The film, which had a budget of $30 million, pulled in just $11 million in its opening month. After a fortnight it had only recouped $27.9 million, forcing Universal to remove it from over 1,000 theaters at the weekend.

The old adage ‘get woke, go broke’ proves correct once more.