The Santa Clause 2 (2002) Movie Information:

The Santa Clause 2 (2002) Directed by: Michael Lembeck The Santa Clause 2 (2002) Written by: Don Rhymer, Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio, Ed Decter, John Strauss The Santa Clause 2 (2002) Cast: Tim Allen, Elizabeth Mitchell, David Krumholtz, Eric Lloyd, Judge Reinhold, Wendy Crewson, Spencer Breslin, Liliana Mumy, Danielle Woodman, Art LaFleur

The Santa Clause 2 (2002) U.S. Distributor: Buena Vista The Santa Clause 2 (2002) U.K. Distributor: Buena Vista

Our Rating: User Rating:  Log in to rate this movie

The Santa Clause 2 (2002) Synopsis:

Scott Calvin has been Santa Claus for the past eight years, and his loyal elves consider him the best Santa ever. But Santa's got problems--he's even mysteriously losing weight--and things quickly go south when he finds out that his son, Charlie, has landed on this year's "naughty" list. Desperate to help his son, Scott heads back home, leaving a substitute Claus to watch over things at the Pole. But when the substitute institutes some strange redefinitions of naughty and nice--putting Christmas at risk--it's up to Scott to return with a new bag of magic to try to save Christmas.

The Santa Clause 2 (2002) Movie Review:

Another Christmas is right around the corner and as the season approaches Hollywood loves to bring out the latest season inspired film. This year the big holiday film is “The Santa Clause 2”.

This is a sequel to the 1994 Tim Allen comedy, “The Santa Clause”, which saw a single father accidentally inherit the mantle of Santa Clause when the “real” Santa falls off his roof. Eight years later, the sequel comes to theatres which reunites all the cast from the previous film. The story this time finds Santa Claus (Tim Allen) faced with a dilemma of keeping his mantle as Santa. He has to get married before Christmas Eve or risk losing the privilege of being Saint Nick. To make matters more complicated Santa finds out his son is having trouble in school and that he has to create a duplicate of himself to run the North Pole while he is away finding a wife. How will Santa do it?

“The Santa Clause 2” does have a wonderful premise at its core. One of the scenes that I did like was the opening “submarine” styled homage. I also liked how they found the new “clause”. I liked the idea of a magical watch and some of the more sugar coated moments with the little girl. I also liked the crazy reindeer and the “mythical characters” meeting.

The film has some key moments but loses its way about half way as doesn’t seem to know what it was at times. The sequel seems to forget that the original film was about the reconnection between a father and son through Christmas when his father becomes an intricate part of the holiday. The sequel has elements of that premise but seems to get bogged down in the special effects and giant toys.

The whole idea of a “cloned Santa who happens to be a toy” is pretty ridiculous. The scenes where Allen plays the “rubberized-version” of Santa made me shake my head. The filmmakers didn’t seem to know what they wanted from this character. They seemed to meander around on how they would make him evil then they delayed quite a while on what was his evil plan. I really didn’t understand the character fully other than he was evil, addicted to “hot-coco”, dressed like a fascist.

It is no wonder it took six different writers to write this film’s screenplay. The writers obviously didn’t know how to expand on the premise of the film’s “Mrs. Clause” and had to come up with the “evil Santa” to make the film longer. I wanted to see more of Tim Allen going on blind-dates and an expansion on the “reindeer trainee”. How about an expansion on the “mythical characters” subplot as well? It could have been hilarious if Santa asked some of his mythical friends for dating advice. Or how about one of them helps run the North Pole and regularly check in with old St. Nick. I just think it could have been a better movie if it was a “romantic-family comedy” instead of a “special effects family comedy”.

So Says the Soothsayer.

Our Rating: User Rating:  Log in to rate this movie

The Santa Clause 2 (2002) review written by: Dean Kish