MOVIE REVIEW: SC2 not as magical as the first — Grade C+
The Christmas season seems to begin sooner every year. This year retail stores were setting up their Christmas displays before Halloween even passed. For Disney, the holiday movie season started early with their release of “The Santa Clause 2,” a film trying to repeat the success of the first one.
This second helping finds Scott (Tim Allen), the new Santa Claus looking for a Mrs. Claus. If he doesn’t find one by Christmas Eve he will stop being Santa forever. To cover his absence while he searches for his bride to be, Santa and his helpers create a toy Santa to keep the North Pole running who eventually creates his own army of toy soldiers to enforce the rules.
While trying to help his son who has landed on the naughty list, Scott falls in love with his son’s principal Carol Newman (Elizabeth Mitchell), a woman who has lost her faith in Christmas. And of course, like all Christmas movies, everything ends happily ever after with lots of holiday tie-ins to ensure Disney profits over the
holidays.
As holiday film fare goes, this mostly unfunny sequel is nothing new. In fact, it fails to shine with the sincerity and honesty the first one had. This one relies on clichés (like boring teachers and overly strict principals), talking reindeer and tried-and-true Christmas humor to sell itself. It must be doing pretty well with the box office take it has raked in its first two weeks ($60 million).
But none of this makes it a great movie. In fact, it is just another way to make money out of this holiday that should stand for peace and love but instead stands for profit and tie-in toys.
The plot premise was a good way to start, but the fun of the idea was lost along the way. Allen was minus his usual brand of humor (probably to maintain the G rating), and the whole film was pretty much a boring mass of tinsel and snow. It sacrificed the magic and laughter for dry dialogue and lackluster humor. Even Spencer Breslin, the whiz kid of “The Kid” was wasted in this film as an ambitious elf who pushes the making of the toy Santa that wreaks havoc on the North Pole.
In other words, the kids will probably think this is the best movie since “Scooby-Doo,” but parents will be bored out of their minds by the farting reindeer and plastic surgery jokes. This is definitely one Christmas movie that won’t join the classic ranks of “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “White Christmas.”
Jared Sterzer is a senior majoring in business informations systems. Comments can be sent to jwsterz@ccu.usu.edu.