The Santa Clause (1994)

Genre

Comedy | Fantasy

Director

John Pasquin

Country

USA

Cast

Tim Allen, Eric Lloyd, Judge Reinhold, Wendy Crewson, David Krumholtz, Paige Tamada, Peter Boyle, Larry Brandenburg, Jayne Eastwood, Kenny Vadas, Christ Benson

Storyline

When he inadvertently kills Santa on Christmas Eve, Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) finds himself magically transformed into Santa. 

Opinion

Having seen the sequels several times - they are on TV on Christmas time all the time -, I decided it was about time to give the original a try. I thought, who knows, maybe the first film is good. I was wrong. "The Santa Clause" is nothing but a predictable and uninspired Christmas film. Basically just like the sequels.

I don't know what the writers were thinking, but the plot is silly, strange and far, far away from being entertaining or somewhat interesting. Also the story progresses in a rather bizarre way, and things eventually go a little "Miracle on 34th Street".

But it really seems like Disney didn't care much for the story, or the characters, or clever writing, all they are interested in is making another typical Disney film with plenty of lame and dated jokes - and some subtle sex jokes as well -, and pointless subplots that are even less interesting than the main plot.

However, as stupid, clichéd and predictable it is, the film manages to be slightly funny at time. It doesn't have any big laugh, and most of the gags - other than being stupid - are not memorable, but you'll have a few laughs here and there. Kids will probably love those gags and jokes though.

Once again playing his typical Scrooge-like character, a workaholic who has a change of heart, Tim Allen does an average job: his acting leaves a lot to be desired, but his comedy is slightly better. The rest of the cast is just there.