8-Bit Christmas

8-Bit Christmas is a 2021 American Christmas comedy film directed by Michael Dowse, from a screenplay by Kevin Jakubowski based upon his novel of the same name. It stars Neil Patrick Harris, Winslow Fegley, June Diane Raphael, David Cross, and Steve Zahn. The film was released on November 24, 2021, on HBO Max, receiving generally favorable reviews from critics. Plot Jake Doyle (Neil Patrick Harris) recounts to his young cell phone obsessed daughter, Annie, how, as a child in the late 1980s, he got his first Nintendo Entertainment System. The movie is told in flashbacks as Jake recalls the memory of that Christmas season when all he wanted was the game console. Timothy Keane, the richest kid in the grade, is the only kid in town with the new Nintendo entertainment system and all the latest accessories. Every day, Jake and his friends gather with the rest of the school outside of Timmy's house, where he chooses ten kids to play in his basement. Timmy even ends up getting the NES Power Glove, only to discover that the product is a bit of a joke. Tired of pandering to Timmy for access to the coveted Nintendo, Jake dreams of getting his own system for Christmas and approaches his distracted mom and forever DIYing dad about getting one for the holidays, only to be shut down on the basis that video games are bad for your brain, and he should play outside more.