Featured Movies
Partners
Run for the Money
Tim Allen's Santa Claus returns with plenty of Christmas cheer and just a little product placement
Ever since accidentally killing Father Christmas in the original The Santa Clause (1994), Scott Calvin (Allen) has been wearing the big guy's red suit and delivering presents as the new Santa Claus. Eight years later, he's still going strong, with an army of elves manufacturing toys at their secret North Pole base and a long, long list of all the world's "Nice" and "Naughty" children. But this year, strange things are afoot. Scott's son Charlie (Lloyd) has become a troublesome teenager and has (gulp) got his name on the "naughty" list. If that's bad enough, the elves have just realised that Santa's contract contains a bit of small print that no one noticed (the "Mrs Clause"). If Santa doesn't marry by Christmas Eve, he'll lose the red suit forever. The only thing he can do is put a robot Santa in charge of the production line and get back to America to help his son and find a wife. With a $65 million budget and six scriptwriters, this ought to be bigger and better than the original. Sadly, it's not. But it's still an entertaining holiday movie with enough comedy and mushy romance to melt the ice around the coldest Scrooge's heart. Kids will love the animatronic (and overly flatulent) reindeer, Santa's magical toy shop and Allen's polished comedy, while adults may find that the on-screen chemistry between Scott and Carol (Elizabeth Mitchell, of 'E.R.') is convincing enough to give even the most cynical audience a run for their money. On the downside, the product placement and the overriding message that Christmas equals presents is slightly dubious, as is the discovery that Santa's robot replacement turns into an evil dictator with a distinct resemblance to Saddam Hussein (and no, we're not making that up). Hopefully that'll be one gag the kids won't notice. Verdict It may have lost some of the sparkle that original Santa Clause had, but this is probably one of the better Christmas movies you're likely to see this year. |
