By Geno McGahee
Tim Allen is a great comedic actor, which is something that I may have never said during his HOME IMPROVEMENT years. He found his groove in film and I find myself laughing most of the time when he’s on the screen. From WILD HOGS to CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS, Allen hits it out of the park and he also impresses in the 1994 holiday film “THE SANTA CLAUSE.”
Scott Calvin (Allen) is a recent divorcee with a young son named “Charlie”. He finds out that his ex-wife, Laura (Wendy Crewson) and her new man, Dr. Neil Miller (Judge Reinhold), have broken it to Charlie (Eric Lloyd) that there is no Santa. Scott is very irritated and takes Charlie for the weekend and that’s when something very strange happens. He hears noise on the roof but when he goes out to investigate, he startles Santa and he falls to the ground and dies. When Scott puts on the uniform, he unknowingly agrees to become Santa and take on his duties.
At first, Scott is struggling to make the job work. He threatens children and knocks down Christmas trees as he brings the gifts. When he goes to the North Pole, he tries to back out of the deal, but there is no way out. When he gets home, he awakes and assumes that it was all a dream until young Charlie begins talking of their adventure. Unfortunately, Charlie brings it up to Neil and it starts some problems for Scott. When they visit the school psychologist, Tim Allen’s sarcastic delivery mixed with Reinhold’s nerdy/jerk demeanor is comedic gold. They work off of each other incredibly well.
As days go by, Scott starts gaining weight dramatically. His facial hair grows quickly and he begins taking on the Santa appearance, which causes more conflict between him and the ex-wife and Neil. They begin to challenge him as a parent and this Santa gig puts his relationship with Charlie on the line. Neil pulls some strings and now Scott is not allowed to see his son. Neil takes the prick level higher by screaming in Charlie’s face that “he’s not Santa!” Scott needs to knock this guy’s dick in the dirt.
Scott kidnaps Charlie and brings him to the North Pole and now the police are after him. He accepts the role as Santa and takes his sleigh back to town as his ex-wife goes through a lineup of possible bad Santas, which includes a little person. Why would they pick up a little person? The police knew that Scott was average height but yet, they ruin the holidays for one midget. Damn them.
The police get their man. The elves come down and break him out and he meets up with Laura and Neil. He drops off Charlie and takes on his role of Santa full time. He even convinces his ex-wife that he is the real deal. Against all odds, he also convinces Neil. Reinhold is hilarious as he approaches Allen and says in a childlike manner “Santa?”
THE SANTA CLAUSE was made on 22 million and turned 150 million at the box office. It spawned a couple sequels and has become a holiday classic, which is what it deserves. The key to this film was casting. Tim Allen was perfect in this role and it was his first real shot at the big screen. Reinhold is great at playing a douche as he did in GREMLINS and he brings it home here as well. Eric Lloyd was the right kid for the job too and I couldn’t figure out where I remembered him from. Then it hit me! DUNSTEN CHECKS IN. I don’t care what people say. That movie rocked. You can’t go wrong with an orangutan.
I highly recommend THE SANTA CLAUSE. It’s an Xmas classic.
Rating: 7.5/10
