Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)

Good movie but grossly overrated

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I have no idea what movie those who rated this as the best Christmas movie ever were watching, but it couldn't have been this one. This is definitely not a Christmas Classic as advertised. In fact as an avid Christmas movie fan and collector, I had never even heard of this one before. No wonder! The first 3/4 of the movie SLOWLY develop the things we know about Santa and the last quarter involve what felt like a last minute add on that involved the villain John Lithgow. The script is amateurish and annoying, with bad "self/elf" puns, emo reindeer that you just want to shoot, the cheesiest special effects ever seen since the 50's and the child actors are terrible.Dudley Moore, Burgess Meredith and John Lithgow get top billing to make this movie look like it might be something when in fact, the lead actor is actually David Huddleston who delivers the only good performance despite the bad writing. Meredith's part is merely a short cameo appearance.In the 32 Christmas seasons that this has been out, I have never seen it advertised in the lineups of any of the major networks which shows just how much of a loser this film really is. Don't waste your time

You would think that it would be difficult to make a movie about Santa Claus that's absolutely lacking in charm - and yet everybody from Ilya Salkind who produced this to Jeannot Szwarc who directed it to David and Leslie Newman who came up with the story pulled that off magnificently. I suppose that just because it's a Christmas movie and people are more warm-hearted at this time of year it's going to get some kind reviews, but really - this was awful. It's totally charmless, and has a meandering, often pointless story and bland performances all around.First - it bears no resemblance to any legend of Santa Claus that I've ever come across. I suppose coming up with a fictional story about a fictional character isn't really a crime, but at least it should be enjoyable - and it should (sort of, somehow) make sense. Here, Santa (David Huddleston) is a kind man who takes toys to children on Christmas Eve apparently hundreds of years ago who's essentially drafted by elves to become Santa. Some sort of elf- prophecy, apparently. We have an interminable hour or so of virtually no importance at all (but full of awful "elf-puns") until we get to what the story was supposed to be about, and then it's kind of ho-hum. In the present day, one of Santa's elves (played by Dudley Moore) gets discouraged, leaves the North Pole and teams up with an evil toy manufacturer (John Lithgow). Chaos ensues, bad things happen, Santa has to save the day. Yadda, yadda, yadda. And along the way there's a poor, homeless boy whom Santa takes pity on (while apparently ignoring all the other poor, homeless children, who don't get rides in the sleigh and a trip to the North Pole) and an orphan who lives in a big house and has lots of stuff and whose uncle happens to be the evil toy manufacturer.You know how it will all turn out. Santa will save the day. Too bad he couldn't save this movie. (2/10)

Santa Claus (1985) * (out of 4) A Christmas favorite to many, this 1985 film starts off with a kind man and his wife being approached by some elves to become Santa Claus. Shortly afterwards we see how Christmas has changed and an elf named Patch (Dudley Moore) comes up with an assembly line to make toys quicker. When they fall apart Patch decides to head out on his own and ends up with a crooked toy maker (John Lithgow).SANTA CLAUS is a film loved by many so I guess I will embrace the hate mail and being called a Grinch by saying that I thought it was pretty darn awful on many levels. I think the biggest problem is the direction, which I found to be really bad as there's no style or flow to the picture. Another major problem is the screenplay, which is all over the place and I found each and every scene just to drag itself out. Even the sequence showing how Santa came to be just ran too long.The biggest offense here is that there's not an ounce of life, energy or laughs to be found. I was really shocked at how plain and bland the Moore elf was as there's just nothing fun about the character. Moore is pretty lifeless in the role and even Burgess Meredith doesn't get much to do. David Huddleston is good as Santa and he's about the only good thing. Lithgow is rather annoying in his part.SANTA CLAUS will find much support from people but I'm not one of them.

This film gets rightfully undeserving backlash for no straightforward apparent reasoning (at least, not to my knowledge). I saw this back in 1998 on a VHS when I was 7; this meant whatever I saw could be wound and rewound again, and again. I remember my mother and I would sit down on our comfy sofa, curled up by the fireplace next to the tree, with a cup of hot mocha, every Christmas week, every Christmas eve, and almost every Christmas day to watch this beloved rare nostalgic treasure. Every year that I watch it, the heartwarming memories come flooding back to me. To me, it holds a special place in my heart as a timeless tale of warmth, joy, belonging, and togetherness, a feeling that most live-action "kids" films now adays, especially "family pictures", seem to bypass, confuse, or forget. This film does what a number of Christmas Fantasy Films began to emulate: the "fantasy". It feels like an Historical Family Christmas Comedy/Drama, if that makes any sense. It touches on themes of upbringing, unconditional & unconventional compassion, helping those in need, love, belief, faith in one's self, and most of all, destiny.. that we can choose to follow our own path; a path towards enlightenment, a path towards a better life, a path to a brighter future, for everyone. I know like I'm sounding as if this turned into a paragraph-long sermon for some sort of masterpiece that gets wrongfully accused of being "too commercialized", "too adult, sometimes", "too weird", "too strange", "too 80s", "too much like watching a set", "too cheap looking visual effects", "too long", "too drawn out", "too boring".Well, here is my final statement: This film, to me, captures EXACTLY what Christmas is all about; not only that, but it can show young and old, children and adults alike, that with "a little magic", anything can happen (I know, a corny line, but here me out).. You just have to BELIEVE it will happen.. And ALWAYS hold on to faith.......Final Grade: 10/10 --------- A glorious beautiful masterpiece that will continue to transcend the ages as One of the Pinnacle of Defining Christ-mas movies that shows every child should "never stop believing".