Bump: A Christmas Film review – Colombia is calling

For the last five years or so, Stan has made it their business to corner the lucrative Australian Christmas movie market. And while they haven’t been afraid of the traditional summer fun family celebration – see Christmas on the Farm (2021) and Jones Family Christmas (2023) – they’ve alternated them with more comedic takes like A Sunburnt Christmas (2020), Christmas Ransom (2022), and last year’s Nugget is Dead: A Christmas Story.

So where does Bump: A Christmas Film fit in?

If you’ve watched the bubbly comedy series at any stage over its last five seasons, you already have a pretty good idea. Though you may be wondering exactly where the holiday cheer is meant to come from, as the final episode of the final series wrapped things up with the death of Angie (Claudia Karvan).

Good news: this new film officially takes place between episodes 9 and 10, allowing Angie to be part of the fun and everyone else to have a good time without feeling guilty.

Bump: getting the family together

‘Just getting the family together is a ritual – it’s worth something,’ Angie says early on, trying to sell the central idea of the film to her partner Edith (Anita Hegh): the conjoined Chalmers-Davis clan are going to avoid the hustle and bustle of Christmas by flying to Colombia and taking a cruise around South America.

It’s the homeland of Santi’s stepmother Rosa (Paula Garcia) – Santi (Carlos Sanson jnr) is the partner of Oly (Nathalie Morris), Angie’s daughter, whose abrupt teen motherhood started Bump off five seasons ago – and she’s so excited about the whole thing she’s breaking the fourth wall and talking direct to us about how Colombia is the best country in the world. Forget all that stuff with Pablo Escobar: ‘that no longer happens.’

Not everyone shares her enthusiasm. Rosa also has two teenage sons, Seb (Jeronimo Romero Llorente) and Gabe (Alex Sanson), who are basically coming along under duress. Oly’s brother Bowie (Christian Byers) is dressed as Tony Montana because he’s going for a role in an Ocean’s 11 spin-off.

And Oly and Santi’s oldest child Jacinda (Ava Cannon), the one who started all this off, is jumping on the bed while her eight week old sibling Angelo is draining the life out of his mother.

As for Edith’s brother (and Angie’s ex-husband) Dom (Angus Sampson)? Well, he’s in trouble from the start, as most of the family’s luggage goes missing on the flight to South America and he’s left without a change of clothes. Lucky he’s still got his duty-free booze … until he finds out he’s not allowed to bring it onto the cruise ship.

Bump: the Columbian Queen

By the time they board the Columbian Queen, things are already starting to look a little frayed. Oly’s request to read Angie’s half-written memoir-slash-autofiction seems like a bad move from the start, Rosa has put together a schedule heavy on ‘compulsory fun’, and her attempts to pair off her sister Ximena (Sara Marmolejo) with Dom seem like a bad idea even if he was interested in anything beyond the ship’s watered-down drinks.

Meanwhile, the stress of a newborn has Oly’s attention wandering towards the flirtatious cabin crew, which can’t be a good thing. Santi’s attempts to speak the native lingo don’t always work out, which is a bit embarrassing considering his heritage.

And when Rosa’s much loved baby Jesus, the symbol of Christmas for her family, goes missing, well … maybe that pocket mirror she accidentally smashed on the way to the plane was a bad omen after all.

Bump: messy energy

Bump has always been a series that’s been runs on messy energy, and with a story driven more by moments and one-off gags than much of an over-arching plot that’s definitely the case here.

Everyone is feeling a little out of place; some (like Angie) just decide to go with things and push through. It’s a chance to have one last go around with some much-loved characters, and everyone seems well aware that while this may not be a traditional Australian Christmas adventure, an extended family hangout is what we’ve come to see.

Angie’s determined to live life to the fullest, and exploring a new culture is the perfect outlet. Karvan dials up the vitality to eleven, and together with a bunch of footage she and co-star Carlos filmed in Columbia (most of the film was filmed in Sydney), the whole thing has a bubbly energy that stands out even for Bump – even if Oly’s subplot is mostly about her being exhausted.

A movie where a much-loved sitcom cast goes tropical is such a well-worn trope that it’s hard to feel anything but admiration for a show giving it a go in 2025. What makes this more than simply Bump Goes Bananas is a full-hearted celebration of Colombian culture.

It’s always been a part of the series but here it steps to the fore, providing a high energy vibe to the celebrations that are different enough from the Australian norm to be entertaining (and educational) in its own right.

It’s not quite a send-off for the series; it’s already had that. But as one (presumably) last time with the characters, this manages to be both a celebration of the Chalmers-Davis extended family and a decent holiday watch all on its own.

An Australian Christmas story not based around gravy? It’s a Christmas miracle.

Bump: A Christmas Film premieres on Stan on 30 November 2025.

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