I'll Be Home for Christmas (PG)
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This came out in 1998, but I didn't see it until 2024, for Christmas in July. It did poorly both financially and critically, and in a rare turn of events, I don't particularly care. Because I didn't really like it, either. I mean, it wasn't unbearable to watch, I didn't have any trouble sitting through the whole thing. I didn't hate it. It just wasn't really good.

So, Jonathan Taylor Thomas (of Home Improvement fame) plays college student Jake Wilkinson, who is dating a fellow student named Allie Henderson (Jessica Biel). His father (Gary Cole) wants him to come home for Christmas, which Jake doesn't want to do. Mainly that's because he's upset about his dad remarrying a woman named Carolyn less than a year after his mom died. But when his dad bribes him with a Porsche if he gets home by 6pm on Christmas Eve, he changes his mind. Unfortunately, Jake let down some jocks he was trying to help cheat on a test, and they dressed him in a Santa suit and left him unconscious in the middle of the desert. So, Jake has to try to find a way to get home to New York from California, and has a series of misadventures. Meanwhile, Allie gets a ride home from Eddie, a guy who is into her, but it's not reciprocated.

There's not much else I feel the need to mention about the plot. I'll just say Jake is, for the most part, not a particularly good guy. He does have a redeeming turn of heart near the end of the movie, but I still don't really feel like he deserves Allie. And it's hard to care that much about the plot when you don't really care about the main character. Aside from that, I don't think movie was nearly as funny as it was trying to be.