Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey?!

After loving the first movie in this series, then enjoying (to a lesser extent) the second movie, I expected this one to be in the same vein. Unfortunately, it is bad. Really bad. Instead of England and school children, we are subjected to Clunes and Tate. In America. Hollywoodised. And not funny enough to carry this movie. Yawn. Mr Poppy tries to pull this movie up, but just doesn't get there with the combination of US and UK humor. This series has so much potential. Bring back the original school, Pam Ferris, and keep it in England with a fun semi-realistic storyline. Hopefully this dud hasn't ruined a future.

Primary school classroom assistant Mr Poppy's Christmas problems involve taking the kids to win a flashmob contest in London in order to get to New York so that grumpy amnesiac Mr Shepherd can get to New York to marry fiancée Sophie despite the efforts of her ex-boyfriend Bradley Finch to throw a spanner in the works. Martin Clunes follows in the footsteps of Martin Freeman and David Tennant as the latest straight man to Marc Wootton's idiot child-man Mr Poppy (an individual who, in real life, would never be allowed within a mile of of a class of primary school children, all of whom display more maturity than he does. In this instalment, due to Mr Shepherd's amnesia (arising from being kicked in the head by the eponymous donkey), Mr Poppy actually has to exhibit a degree of responsibility, but don't worry, it's not significant. This film is pretty much par for the course. In between bright, colourful musical numbers – lots of them, none of them memorable or very well staged or performed – the rather silly plot unfolds, loose ends flapping in the breeze of the plentiful fart gags, to its eventual climax, yes, you guessed it, atop the Empire State Building (or, to be more precise, a large studio mock-up thereof), while stalwarts of British TV earn a few coppers in between sitcom series. This is not a good film, but neither were its two predecessors and they clearly found enough of an audience to justify this third entry. Having said that it is not a good film, I must go on to say that it is essentially good-hearted (albeit I would have liked to have seen the issue of swindling the posh kids out of their trip to New York addressed), and it is good natured. And there were two moments, one from Clunes and one from Lauren Hobbs (very good as his daughter Lauren) which got closer to moving me to tears than many other much "better" films. Plus, above everything else, Nativity 3 is aimed at kids, not adult. And I suspect that kids like jokes about farts and reindeer poo more than adults.

I never stopped smiling through out this film and nothing else works to get me in the Christmas mood!

As said in my reviews for the previous two 'Nativity!' films, found the first 'Nativity!' film enjoyable for what it was. It was nothing mind-blowing, but achieved what it set out to do well and didn't try to be any more than it was. The same goes with its inferior but not that bad sequel 'Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger'. This is sadly not true for this sorry second follow up 'Nativity 3: Where's My Donkey?' It is an embarrassment for not just the talented cast involved but also for the viewer. Whatever one's stance on the second film is (which was met with a lot of criticism and defence), it is a masterpiece compared to 'Nativity 3: Where's My Donkey?' The wonderfully natural children and the cheerful soundtrack are the only things that save 'Nativity 3: Where's My Donkey?' from being a bottom of the stocking lump of coal. Unfortunately the adult cast struggle...badly. Martin Clunes has a character that should have perfect for him and played to his strengths, but he doesn't look that interested and sleepwalks through his roles. Marc Wooton overplays wildly even more than he did in the second film and the film brings the worst out of Catherine Tate, made to be irritating in an on paper tailor made role. Not even a wasted Celia Imrie can save this, and the film was crying out for Pam Ferris. 'Nativity 3: Where's My Donkey's' story has all the ridiculousness and predictability of the second film but is multiplied by a thousand. Sadly, it also suffers from being erratically paced (often dull thanks to a lot of padding and scenes that easily could have been trimmed or left out) and being far too long by at least half an hour. A weak script is another big problem. The improvisatory nature of it is stilted and clunky, the jokes are juvenile even by younger viewer standards and it does descend into schmaltz. It doesn't have the warmth, charm and heart of the previous two films which means the script and story flaws are far more noticeable. It looks drab. Didn't mind the un-flashy look of the previous two films, seeing as it didn't call for big-budget quality, but simplicity is taken too far here that it's instead borderline-amateurish. Overall, weak, very weak. 2/10 Bethany Cox

For the love of God please stop making these films. The first was good, the 2nd was watchable, this is just plain awful. Flash mob after god awful flash mob. There's no rhyme or reason to anything, any sense of realism goes out the window.

We wanted to see a funny navity movie thats the only reson we are here not to see this substanded chav fest ! first 15 mins are good but the film is runied by the plot with the memory loss and wedding instead off a advnter movie which it should off and could off been . and not enough mr shakesper ! still some laughs tho

Spoilers. This film was brilliant. I took all my 34 kids to see it, not one of them showed a dislike in the film. The show stopper was when the donkey started to dance. Hahaha,funny. I recommend this film to all families. Hoping for a 4th Nativity.

Nativity 3 very much scrapes the bottom of the yuletide barrel. Martin Clunes is the new teacher Jeremy Shepherd who along with his daughter Lauren is looking forward to getting married to his fiancée Sophie (Catherine Tate) in New York but he is also wary of her ex boyfriend, a famous singer who plans to do an impromptu flash mob for Sophie. Mr Shepherd has to deal with Mr Poppy (Marc Wootton) the man-child classroom assistant who has recently been sacked by the new temporary head teacher in advance of the school inspection. Mr Shepherd loses his memory after being kicked in the head by a donkey. Mr Poppy plans to take the school kids to New York by winning a flash mob contest in London and also hopes to get Me Shepherd's memory back so he can marry Sophie. I think only the very young would like this dull film. School kids randomly start to sing and dance for no reason. The story is thin and grossly stupid. Mr Poppy should be locked up to protect the children and when the story moves to New York he inexplicably starts to behave like an adult.

I enjoyed the first Nativity film and the second was tolerable, but this film goes off the chart of dross! Absolutely the worst film I have ever seen. I am a fan of Martin Clunes, Catherine Tate and Celia Imrie but how they could attach themselves to this film is beyond me. How did it get green lit? How did it get a budget? Why didn't someone say, 'This is a truly dreadful movie, please don't inflict it upon cinema goers?' The script is excruciatingly bad and makes no sense whatsoever - even given that it is (supposedly) a comedy and the boundaries of normal suspension of disbelief can be pushed a little further. ****SPOLIER**** Unlike the two previous Nativity films random and ever changing numbers of children keep breaking into poorly choreographed song and dance numbers. The prospect of an Ofsted inspection is introduced but does not form any part of the story, there are some truly awful and cringeworthy cardboard cut-out characterisations and what can I say about the donkey...? It's called 'Dude, where's my donkey?' But after using the donkey as a device to make Martin Clunes lose his memory, and bringing it back at the end to dance at the top of the Empire State building, no one is looking for the donkey. And as for the way Martin Clunes gets his memory back... seriously? Believe? I absolutely didn't. ****SPOLIER ENDS**** Please save your money, save your sanity, save yourselves! Don't bother...

If you have seen Nativity, and Nativity 2, you won't be going into this follow-up movie expecting anything worthy of an Oscar! But what you will be expecting is a movie full of very lighthearted fun, ridiculously silly jokes, and hugely laughable plot-holes, which is exactly what you will get - but that is what makes the Nativity movies so great! With a cast of great British actors (and a donkey), just go into this movie with a giant bag of popcorn and a huge sugary drink and just giggle like a child along to the singing, dancing and our lovable Mr Poppy and get yourself into the Christmas spirit! Well worth a watch if you aren't in the mood for anything serious and want to feel festival, and I promise you will be singing "Dude, Where's My Donkey" for several hours after watching!