Steve Dietl/Disney+
Sorry to all other festive movies coming out this holiday season—nothing can top the revival of Ludacrismas. More than 15 years after Ludacris worked on Fred Claus, contributing a single that has mysteriously fallen off the face of the Earth, the rapper has returned to save Christmas once more. Hallelujah. It’s a Chicken-n-Beer miracle.
While we could spend this entire review quoting more Ludacris tracks and albums, we won’t, considering the star’s latest film, Dashing Through the Snow (Nov. 17 on Disney+), is firmly PG-rated. Sorry, guys. A lack of Ludacris puns is not my fantasy, but don’t blame me; Disney is the one acting a fool. While it’s shocking to see Ludacris star in such a family-friendly role after his musical work and frequent participation in the Fast and the Furious franchise, after watching this, you’ll have to admit: Ludacris was made to star in Christmas movies.
And it’s not just because half of his name is the prefix of Christmas. Ludacris runs away with Dashing Through the Snow as Eddie Garrick, a crisis counselor with the Atlanta police department who hates the festive season that comes around every December. Eddie claims that Christmas is “the chicken wing of holidays”—not in the fact that it’s delicious, but rather that it’s a lot of work and overrated. It doesn’t help that during one miserable childhood holiday season, not only did Eddie’s parents get divorced on Christmas, but a man dressed like Santa also tried to rob their house. The first part of that backstory is predictable. The second—okay, that’s a twist on “bah humbugs” none of us saw coming.