Bad Tidings – WISE Score & Parent Review | Screenwise

Bad Tidings

Name: Screenwise
Author: Screenwise

movie2024

32%

WISE Score

Home Alone meets grumpy neighbors: a Christmas lights feud turns into suburban warfare when robbers strike. Spoiler: it's not good.

Bad Tidings

movie

NR, 2024

32%

WISE Score

Home Alone meets grumpy neighbors: a Christmas lights feud turns into suburban warfare when robbers strike. Spoiler: it's not good.

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Screenwise Verdict

Look, I'll be straight with you: this is a bad movie. A 5.5 on IMDb is rough, but a 2.5 on Letterboxd? That's 'people who actually care about film think this is terrible' territory.

The premise is tired—we've seen the Home Alone formula recycled endlessly, and nothing here suggests they found a fresh angle. The protagonist is a petty jerk who ruins Christmas for an entire neighborhood, which doesn't exactly scream 'wholesome holiday viewing.'

The lack of any content rating is concerning when you're dealing with home invasion and crime families. You're going in blind on intensity levels.

Bottom line: there are dozens of better holiday movies and action-comedies for families. Unless you're truly desperate for new content or have a kid obsessed with booby-trap movies, skip this one. Your time is worth more.

Age Fit

Likely aimed at the 10-14 crowd who enjoy slapstick action-comedies, but the poor ratings suggest even that audience will be bored. Adults will find this painful. Younger kids might be frightened by home invasion elements.

WISE Breakdown

Wholesome

A tit-for-tat neighbor feud that escalates to cutting power for an entire street on Christmas Eve doesn't exactly model mature conflict resolution. The premise centers on petty grievances and revenge, though it does eventually pivot to cooperation. The grumpy protagonist and antagonistic setup undermine positive emotional modeling until the third act.

Imaginative

This is a paint-by-numbers Home Alone knockoff with feuding neighbors instead of a clever kid. The 'defend the neighborhood from robbers' setup has been done to death, and nothing in the synopsis or available data suggests any fresh creative spin. It's derivative holiday action-comedy without apparent originality.

Safe

Without an MPAA rating or detailed content information, we're flying blind. The premise involves home invasion by a 'crime family' and likely slapstick violence (booby traps, etc.). Given the Home Alone-style setup, expect pratfalls and physical comedy that could be intense for younger viewers. The low IMDb (5.5) and Letterboxd (2.5) scores suggest this might be poorly executed, which often correlates with tonal inconsistencies or unexpected intensity.

Enriching

The 'set aside differences to work together' arc is the only potentially valuable lesson here, but it's buried under a formulaic plot. Low ratings across the board (5.5 IMDb, 2.5 Letterboxd) suggest poor execution that undermines any meaningful takeaways. This appears to be forgettable holiday filler without cognitive challenge, ethical depth, or skill-building opportunities.

Parent Info

✓

Why It Might Be Great

If your kids have exhausted every other Home Alone knockoff and are desperately seeking more booby-trap content, this technically exists
The 'enemies become allies' arc could spark discussion about cooperation, buried though it may be under mediocre execution
Holiday setting might work for families who'll watch literally anything Christmas-adjacent in December

⚠

What to Watch For

Those ratings are brutal—5.5 on IMDb and 2.5 on Letterboxd means this is likely poorly made and hard to sit through
Home invasion and crime family premise means expect violence, even if slapstick; without a content rating, you're guessing at intensity
The protagonist literally ruins Christmas Eve for his entire street out of spite, which is... not great modeling
Expect formulaic plotting and probable tonal inconsistencies given the low scores

Conversation Starters

"Neil cut power to the whole street because he was mad at one neighbor. What would have been a better way to handle that conflict?"
"Why do you think people sometimes let small disagreements turn into big fights?"
"If you had to team up with someone you didn't like to solve a problem, how would you make it work?"

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