a thriller about christmas at the mall that's 25% crime and 75% beautiful women throwing themselves at weird and possibly sociopathic super nerd elliott gould...incredible, iconic, revolutionary

“I always wondered what it felt like to be shot. It hurts a lot.”

Elliott Gould! Christopher Plummer! Susannah York! Extremely young John Candy! Curtis Hanson’s screenplay! Shocking plot twists! A Hall of Fame caliber death scene! An extremely Canadian shopping mall! Where has this movie been all my life?!?

Elliott Gould as Elliott Gould. Christopher Plummer as Bad Santa. A dangerous cat-and-mouse game. Who will come out the winner? Who is the biggest sociopath? Who couldn't be happier to have dumped his 7 kids at Julie Andrews' place? Find out in the most festive X-mas movie since Die Hard.

RIP Mr Plummer

This movie is the exact pace, length, and tone you want from a 1978 Elliot Gould vehicle where Christopher Plummer robs a bank dressed as a mall santa. It's the minimum amount of funny you'd be expecting from the Overton window your mind instantly created from reading that premise but that ended up working out for the best. I like when movies trust me to fend for myself with finding things funny. Keeps me engaged. Even into my thirties getting up and wandering away remains a threat with me and movies.

My only complaint is that the movie keeps trying to insist that things are closing in on Gould, that people are starting to suspect that he's up to something. I disagree. I think he was doing a very good job -as good as anybody could've done in this situation- and the movie should've given him a break.

asks the question “is it necessary for women to do anything other than try to get elliott gould to kiss them?”

somehow this took the premise of "70s canuck giallo starring elliott gould" and then not only lived up to but exceeded my expectations

Solid 70s pulp crime thriller, Like something out of a Donald Westlake Novel. The cast is solid, especially Gould and Plummer.

It would make for a great Christmas action double feature with Shane Black's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

HitchCanuckian Thriller is an underserved genre.

This is a devilishly delightful film. Such a simple story but treated with the greatest of care. It's the kind of genre piece no one makes anymore, let alone this well. Engaging from beginning to end, full of little flashes of comic brilliance and legitimate tension in near equal measures. And you get to see a young John Candy!

the perfect 70’s crime movie, very Robert Altman-esque inspired, also good looking cast

I was sold as soon as I heard the premise: Elliott Gould as a teller whose bank is robbed by an anklet-wearing mall Santa played by Christopher Plummer. plus John Candy?? between this and Black Christmas, Canada cornered the marker on offbeat holiday classics. 

come for the usual Gould standard, stay for the A+ ending plus Louise’s t-shirts that portended Frank’s trucker hats on 30 Rock with double entendres specific to working in a bank like BANKERS DO IT WITH INTEREST and PENALTY FOR EARLY WITHDRAWAL, made all the better by the fact that no one ever comments on this

Enjoyed the hell out of this Hitchcockian thriller disguised as a gritty 70s crime drama. It’s constantly surprising, intricately plotted and often goes to strange places I just didn’t see coming. Christopher Plummer and Elliot Gould are both awesome, as is Susannah York in a more thankless part. And even a young John Candy appearance!

so many honey pots and reverse honey pots. I'm just glad John candy got some of the action

Drop what you’re doing and go watch this. Do what I say. I have a gun. 

What else have you got to do? Watch some pretentious bullshit shot in black and white? Fuck that. Go watch this instead.

I liked this but I wish I’d liked it more. Gould is good as an everyman character, I wish the film had more interest in his internal life besides who he wants to screw and who wants to screw him at any given moment, oh and also he likes fish.

Elliot Gould is the only man who could look cool with that hairstyle.

I don't know this, but in my imagination, someone in Canada saw what was happening in the Australian film industry and said "hey, maybe we should publicly fund some Canadian films". The result was this heist crime thriller that has an inventive story line and goes for Hitchcockian psychological examination of Elliot Gould's protagonist and Christopher Plummer's antagonist. Both leads are absolutely fantastic, Gould with his natural on screen charisma and magnetism, Plummer with his very creepy subtle performance. A young John Candy is a delight to see in a very small role. The first third is especially great and had me fully bought in. The main problem is that a few plot beats happen in the last third that make Gould's character make a big turn that doesn't make a lot of sense. Still a very fine movie and will be enjoyed by fans of psychological crime thrillers.

we have no choice to stan Elliott Gould, especially as an unfairly beleaguered aquarist! also much love to the kid who asks santa for a pelican for xmas.

Leaving Criterion May 31

This has so much intrigue and is so delightfully offbeat that it feels like it was made just for me. So tense and sexy and funny and so rich with details (from exotic fish to refrigerator key storage to check doodles!) that it feels like it's operating on another level. Also it probably goes without saying but Gould and Plummer are both ON FIRE. Got me feeling some type of way.

A film like this doesn't NEED to be so gorgeously shot and have an Oscar Peterson score, but of course this has it all, and some truly nasty violence, too! A genuinely unique and surprising riff on the meandering, vibey, low-key thrillers that were so prevalent in the '70s and have by now seemed to disappear altogether. A masterpiece of Canadian cinema.