Nativity 3: Dude, Where’s My Donkey? ** (2014, Martin Clunes, Marc Wootton, Catherine Tate, Celia Imrie, Jason Watkins) – Movie Review

It’s amazing that they’ve managed to find new material to squeeze a trilogy out of what was a thin idea in the first place back in 2009. But the third of the Nativity film series by Debbie Isitt Is at least a notable improvement on part two and a return to the pleasant seasonal time-passer of the original.

The pupils of St Bernadette’s are back in 2014 and this time Marc Wootton’s madcap character Mr Poppy is looking for his beloved donkey Archie. Martin Clunes is a good addition to the cast as new teacher Mr Shepherd, who has lost his memory as well as the donkey. It’s up to the class to save the day, find the donkey and reunite Mr Shepherd with his fiancée Sophie (Catherine Tate) in New York.

The easy-going, good-natured Christmas fun comedy is sometimes amusing but sometimes slack and over-cosy. If director Isitt’s writing is variable, the performing is in safe hands with a tried and tested cast of old Brit faithfuls.

There were inevitably a lot of negative reviews from Scrooge-like critics, but the public spent £5.7miilion to see it, so part 4 may well be in the works.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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