Der Weihnachtsmann streikt

I was actually fortunate enough to watch part of the filming of this movie in Natchitoches, LA and never would have believed how bad it was when it hit the screen. I was sorely disappointed for many reasons including the fact that they filmed this during the hottest time of the year expecting the extra's to wear winter coats, sweaters & other items so hot that many were suffering from heat exhaustion...even Santa. The extra's were not even paid extra's. They wanted 1,000 and I think were lucky to get 100 if that but I know not near as many showed up in the 90-100 degree weather sporting their winter attire.

I had TIVO'd the movie for my grand children to watch around the holidays and ended up deleting it before I even watched it all the way through.

The grand kids weren't disappointed at Christmas because I had recorded many of the "good" Christmas specials for them and didn't make them suffer through this one.

This "remake" of the beloved Year without a Santa Clause was the most awful movie I have seen in years. First of all - it was not a kids special. There were scantily clad women and many parts I would find inappropriate for young kids. No wonder it was on at 9 pm. Not that I am opposed to adult oriented movies, I am a horror fan and rarely watch anything that is not rated R, but, as far as Christmas specials go... they are usually geared towards little children. The acting was horrible. Eddie Griffin and the guy from Mallrats as the elves was ridiculous. I could not even get through the whole thing it was so bad. If I could have given it a 0 I would have. The original was great - that I highly recommend.

A truly depressing piece of dreck, this live action version of the Christmas classic fails on so many levels it's almost funny. (And those are the only laughs you'll get out of this.) It's a shame the movie studios all closed down their TV movie units in the 80s because TV movies need all the help they can get.

All those modern, "hip" touches are rife with jokes that soar over the kid's heads, but sadly not the adults. The humor is, befitting the times, crude and boorish and the story is lame. Bad acting, contrived sentimental situations and flat photography all contribute to a bad time had by all. The heads at NBC must have been high on cough syrup to even think this looked like it would be any good.

Shove this one in the vault and never let it see the light of day again.

Another adaptation of the book, but is mostly a painful extension of the Rankin and Bass cartoon. This becomes no more apparent than when they decide to just throw in the Heat/Snow Miser songs. In the same sad way that Ron Howard's Grinch used the song from the 60's version. It's a highlight, but it just reminds us how unimaginative and tacky the remake is. We have a needless antagonist that wants to replace Santa with Extreme Santa, and Jangle is obsessed with urban culture and television. Towards the end it picks up, when I forgot the main plot of the film, and it focused on the son and his politician father. Goodman is fine as a cranky Santa, but he's just playing himself. McKean and Fierstein have some fun as the Miser brothers, even though I don't think Fierstein's voice suits the singing sections. The cartoon has more heart, more soul, and doesn't go for forced "humour"

Acting=bland, storyline=contrived, pacing=dirge-like, charm=none. A live action "Year Without a Santa Claus" seems like a great idea, unless the people involved turn it into a remake of the Salkind's "Santa Claus: The Movie" instead. And that's what happened.

Not everything about this movie is worthless. The first Heat Miser/Snow Miser scene was well done, but then again it's the only thing left over from the original. At least the powers that be recognized the appeal of that number.

Everyone else was just sleepwalking through their parts, which is a shame. I was excited to see John Goodman as Santa, but he wasn't weary enough in the scenes where Santa is weary, and certainly wasn't jolly enough when Saint Nick needed to be his old self. And Delta Burke? Did she really have a part in this? Mrs. Claus was an important part of the original...here she just seemed like an observer.

I was looking forward to this...I'm no purist. I'm open for all kinds of remakes. But this just didn't cut it.

Watch the original instead. It's a classic, despite its age.