User Reviews

4 December 2018 First Film of Choice at The Plaza Dorchester Tonight - Nativity Rocks. This is outing number four in the Nativity genre and in this instalment we are introduced to Mr Poppy's brother, Mr Poppy! This time round the city of Coventry is competing to be the city of Christmas by staging a rock opera which is to be directed by Emmanuel Cavendish, played by Craig Revel Horwood, who is overacting his socks off. Stick to the stage darling it's much more your scene. Introduce a large collection of small children singing and dancing, combine it with a group of adults who really shouldn't be in charge of the small children, and you find that slapstick and nonsense abound making this film weaker than its previous instalments. However even though the scenes are all a little tired it is good to have a family film at Christmas that doesn't take too much effort to watch, I'm sure the children will love it. Bring back Mr Poppy, because Mr Poppy really doesn't cut it. I think it may be time to put this particular baby back in its manger.

Refugees from Syria; father and son, find sanctuary in the UK's midlands but get separated on the way.

All the elements are here for an uplifting family comedy. There is a great gang of kids, enthusiasm and some good gags. I can forgive the comedy farce elements that were over played for my taste. But the story is too complicated for the time given to it; the threads have been cut to pieces leaving it all in a midland muddle.

The brutal story editing makes sense when we get to the final act to which a lot of the movie time is devoted. We're given a long concert of songs staged in Coventry cathedral. It's really well done and does somewhat redeem the film. Sadly by then the movie had already lost the attention of most of the children in the audience who were fidgeting with boredom.

I liked the references to Coventry's own devastation to bombing in 1939 that made a connection with the young refugee.

Typical Nativity fare following the formula of old just with leftist pro illegal migrant feel good propaganda thrown in for good measure. There's a new Mr Poppy, the kids ended up really missing the actor who played him in the previous three films, they loved Craig Revel Horwood who hams it up as the bad guy very well. It's not great but by no means as terrible as you'd think

Why are there so many bloody sequels to Nativity? The first one is justified to exist as just another mediocre Christmas movie with a bit of charm, but I have no clue why the hell they've made 3 SEQUELS. Especially when these movies earn almost nothing at the box office and are only ever popular in the UK, and even THEN the numbers are disappointing. These movies only exist to cash in on some poor grandparents who want to take their kids to see a movie for Christmas. Why not watch something ''Christmassy'' with actual effort placed into it like Arthur Christmas or the stop-motion Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer movie? Nearly anything besides the Santa Claus movies is better than Nativity. This movie is just like every other movie in this "franchise": Terrible writing, acting and just about everything. Please stop seeing these movies, because even a single penny will keep them around for longer.

Utterly terrible. The first three atleast had something to like about them. The new Mr. Poppy is utterly irritating throughout, and the children don't really have a part to play like they did in the first three. Lazy writing and irritating plot flaws all the way through the film. Started laughing about how bad it was near to the end.

Words can't explain the fresh Hell I have just experienced watching this movie. Please heed my advice and steer clear. Amateur hour

Which figures, as the film is a dogs dinner. Glad I only paid for it a r kids club

This was utterly abhorrent. From a lead that is impossible to sympathise with to dreadful performances, Nativity Rocks is another shining example of British Movie tat.

Found myself liking the first 'Nativity' film for what it was, it wasn't exactly great but it achieved the goal at setting out what it wanted to do and not trying to do much than needed. Many are critical of the second film, personally found it watchable if unexceptional. The third film was a mess, so expectations were not high watching 'Nativity Rocks', out of curiosity, and did question its necessity.

'Nativity Rocks' turned to be even worse and even more sorry than the previous film, as far as 2018 films go for me this is easily down there with the worst (excluding the output of SyFy and The Asylum for a moment). Said for that film that the second film was a masterpiece compared to it, regardless of its faults, 'Nativity Rocks' manages the dubious and seemingly impossible distinction of making the third film look good. Mentioned me questioning its necessity before watching, still feel that another film was really not needed and there was a sense that not much effort was made here.

There is only one good thing in 'Nativity Rocks' and that is the cheerful soundtrack. The one thing that has any cheerfulness in sight.

However, the children are nowhere near as natural and tend to mug, Simon Lipkin is annoying and talented actors like Celia Imrie and Anna Chancellor are wasted with far too little to do. 'Strictly Come Dancing's' Craig Revel Horwood is another story, his performance having more ham than a big gammon dinner and making wildly over-acted villains in local pantomimes more subtle in comparison. None of the characters engage, with not much personality for some and others being irritating.

In terms of the story, 'Nativity Rocks' is all over the place, endlessly predictable, ridiculous and contrived with erratic pacing (leaning towards being too padded) in the too infrequent instances of any glimpses of a story being in sight. No personality in the direction and it is surprising that 'Nativity Rocks' was released in cinemas when it has such a straight to video/DVD look.

Biggest problem is the script. There is nothing natural about the improvisatory nature of some of it. The jokes are puerile and juvenile even by younger viewer standards, there is very little to interest adults and some of the schmaltz gets too much. No heart, warmth or charm here, much of it is bland, mean-spirited and childish.

Altogether, very poor film and doesn't rock in any way. 1/10 Bethany Cox

Two things: 1) My five-year-old loved it 2) This film gives all amateur film-makers hope. If this can be made then anything can, so for that reason it should get decent marks.

Waste of time, So I watched it twice to confirm it. Probably the worst movie that I've seen

I don't get the bad reviews of this film at all. Yes it won't win an Oscar but these films are just what you want at Christmas. A story with a lot of heart and lovely catchy cheesy songs and cute kids. Simon Lipkin adds more heart to the story and I'm always amazed at how they make these films almost completely improvised.

Currently watching this on boxing day with an 8 year old that likes rock music 🎶 We have had a few giggles and enjoyed the message especially love when Mr poppy said that the school badge means the refugee now has a family, such a beautiful thing to say. Enjoy it for what it is!

We walked out after 10 minutes. Puerile unfunny embarrassing film.

Pretty painful to watch but I can imagine it appealing to some children as pure pantomime. The acting is generally terrible and the story is quite preposterous.

If you have nothing else to watch and don't need to dedicate more than a few brain cells to this then it's OK but otherwise you'll never feel like you've missed out on not seeing this.

After the 3rd film in this series was a lot weaker than what had gone before (despite the ever lovely Marc Wooton as Mr Poppy) I thought that would/should be it for the franchise.

However, here we go again with this 4th film, that thankfully gets things back on track.

It does act as a soft reboot of the series, with Wooton and Jason Watkins character, Gordon Shakespeare being retired in favour of a whole new start.

With a new Mr Poppy (because this is 'Nativity', there needs to be a Mr Poppy) and some other biggish names from UK tv and film this works so much better than number 3, with some nice new songs/messages about the importance of Christmas along the way.

So well done to all involved in this franchise, after a blip you've turned it around and created an above average Christmas film. Please don't do a 5th though.

As a metalhead I'm sick of Mainstream pop culture people appropriating metal/rock culture. Hipsters stealing black metal logos, kim Kardashian wearing slayer shirts.. Its offensive to real metal heads and rockers. School of Rock was great as it was heart felt, original and most of all Jack Black has the true blood of rock and heavy metal flowing through his veins. This guy whoever his name is does not. Also if you are going to cover a song from Rainbow, then please stick to the Dio era. Since you've been gone is trendy pop music. Yeah this sucks, fake wanna be metal guy poseur, get in the sea!

I saw this film before Christmas last year and I got to say I wasn't impressed. The other Nativity films were better but this one had a completely different cast compared to its predecessors. The storylines were weak and I found it unsettling where a full grown man was in a bedroom playing with 2 children. Totally inappropriate, hope there will be no more made as that killed the franchise for me. Saw The Grinch around the same time and that was the better of the new Christmas films for 2018 so would recommend that instead.

The title is completely misleading. This nativity didn't rock. It was sad and not in a sad story way just in a I was sad I watched it way.

I had high hopes for this as the other 3 were brilliant but this was dire.

Technicaly very good filmmaking made with iphones probably and edited on a laptop. I am actually very pro amateur filmmaking. So this gets a 6/10 for that. It gives us all hope that very good talents and an iPhone is all you need to make a good movie. One that even gets released in the cinemas accross the country. It gives young and new filmmakers a hope for the future. Great!

As a parent I found it tedious to sit through but enjoyed the occassional silliness. My children, however, absolutely loved it. It is a very British, locay identifiable movie for them.

Now the hugely leftist agenda of the movie. Nothing wrong with that. Except that it is very clever to package it within a conservative sounding movie title such as 'Nativity Rocks'.

Interestingly, the immigrant Syrian is very 'christian', occidental (looks very much like a Norwegian or Swedish), rock song singing, guitar wielding, etc. etc. It was all very bizzare... and Christmassy. So its all good.

Look, it might feel like torture, but the children are going to love it. We were forced to choose this as The Grinch had run out of tickets. Actually, I keep thinking that the children seemed to have enjoyed this more than the multimillion dollar Grinch as we eventually got to see that a week later. Interestingly, the Grinch is also played by a Brit. There are a couple of tear jerkers in the Grinch but the sheer silliness and constant verbosity and action of Nativity Rocks made it a winner with my chidren.

Thanks for reading.

Considering how bad Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey?! Was the only way for the Nativity franchise was up. Nativity Rocks! Was the second-best film in the franchise simply because the film had a back-to-basic approach, and got rid of Mr. Poppy. The plot was more like the first film where the pupils of St. Bernadette's were auditioning to perform in a rock opera so Coventry could be crowned the Christmas Town of Britain. There was no cross-country or international trip or any plots involving child abduction.

Simon Lipkin as Mr. Poppy's long lost brother was irritating but at least he wasn't committing criminal acts, The film also ensure there was some heart because Doru (Brian Bartle), a Syrian refugee gets separated from his dad, so trying to find him, and Barnaby's parents realising they needed to be emotionally supportive of their children, not just financially.

Brilliant return to form from the series. Nativity 1 and 2 were good, three was dire, this was a great return to form, though I did miss Marc Wooton/Original Poppy, the new poppy was brilliant. A lot of heart and some great songs. I didn't expect much after 3 being so bad. But this was far far far better.

Brilliant return to form from the series. Nativity 1 and 2 were good, three was dire, this was a great return to form, though I did miss Marc Wooton/Original Poppy, the new poppy was brilliant. A lot of heart and some great songs. I didn't expect much after 3 being so bad. But this was far far far better.

Painful, but surprisingly the kids enjoyed it. Silly and amateur, no plot, and not a proper Christmas movie. Don't bother unless you can watch it for free (well, the kids can watch it).