Watch Santa Claus: The Movie For Free

The Worst Film Ever

the audience applauded

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

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

Santa Claus is a decent movie with a reasonably well developed storyline and a talented cast, although no one ever gets to show their full potential as an actor. It certainly has good moments and is a very nice Christmas movie that is very strong with the spirit of the season, it is certainly a lot of fun for anyone under the age of ten. The highlight of the entire film for me was John Lithgow, who I believe steals every scene as the villain B.Z., he's ruthless and completely unlikeable, it's an exaggerated performance that easily could have been hurrendous, but Lithgow made it work. My main problem with the film is that the story never really goes anywhere, it's almost two hours long and the adventure only really kicks off at about 75 minutes in, and is resolved by minute 95, the conflict is small and very simple, we never actually lose hope and feel as if the hero may not succeed. Every single character lacks depth or proper arch, none of them are established, not even the title character, we know very little about him before he is made become the Father of Christmas, and Patch the elf is poorly written, despite a good performance from Dudley Moore, the character starts out normal, eventually becomes evil for unknown reasons, and randomly becomes good again, it made little sense to be and it was clear he was just a poorly developed character. It's worth a look if you see it on television, but Santa Claus is definitely not a movie I would insist on watching every Christmas, and you shouldn't go out of your way to see it. A woodcutter soon becomes Santa Claus and must save Christmas from an evil toy manufacturer. Best Performance: John Lithgow

This was my favourite Christmas movie all the way through childhood and I couldn't wait for the video each year to come down from the attic along with the decorations! It's been several years since last I saw it but i'm glad to say it has stood the test of time.Unlike most Christmas movies I seem to see these days which are elf- satirical (running joke), this one is pure and genuine enough to still portray some of the magic and wonder of Christmas.I'm not going to sit here and say it's a master piece but I am disappointed to see it has earned a fairly poor score here on IMDb. More so I think it's a shame that it has fallen into Christmas movie obscurity. It never gets mentioned in the same sentence as the likes of Elf or Home Alone and yet I think this movie does more the raise Christmas spirits than any other.Also, not that it's a major selling point but this movie must have had very well trained reindeer or excellent animatronics. Or both! Half the time I couldn't tell which I was looking at!Great movie with the true spirit of Christmas. More young kids need to be introduced to this movie.

A big budget story about the traditional idea of Santa Claus seems like a good idea. I actually think I can pinpoint where the film sort of falls apart. While the film starts as this captivating fairy tale it quickly turns into a original version of Will Ferrell's "Elf." The film suddenly focuses nearly entirely on Dudley Moore's character because he was the big "star" of the time. The problem is his character has very little depth and you feel no attachment to him whatsoever. The characters are good but don't have enough depth whether it be Moore's character or the villain or the two children, they feel underdeveloped. And the focal point of the story should be Santa because they set up a very interesting beautiful story about this man and then it all falls apart. There are some stunning special effects, the animatronic deer are incredible (although some real deer were used) and the scenery is beautiful. It would have been very impressive for its time. It just feels like they had a great idea but when it came to writing the story it didn't fill out properly.Dudley Moore was a comedy icon in the eighties. He had Arthur under his belt and I'm sure he seemed like the right person for this role. The problem is that the character is underdeveloped as I mention and Moore puts in no personality at all into the character. He isn't fun or easy to watch and brings no life to the elf. David Huddleston is brilliant as Santa Claus. He is shot larger than life, with the giant beard and he just looks regal and commands screen presence. If only the film had focused on him. John Lithgow is decent as our villain B.Z. Lithgow is a fantastic actor, comedic or otherwise, but this role is pretty straight forward for him. He pulls it off flawlessly but had to bored by the simplicity of the character. He gets no chance to really stand out which he easily could have. He plays the character very campy which he does well and it was the only way he could have played it. Christian Fitzpatrick and Carrie Kei Heim play the two youngsters who get themselves into danger. Somehow they should have been the focus of the antagonists story but they aren't and the kids are way underdeveloped as characters and basically just background characters.The biggest disappointment for me is that the film shows some potential. The sheer idea of an epic Santa Claus story that incorporates all the traditional legend and lore with big special effects seems like a sure fire hit. And it wouldn't be a comedy but a sweet family drama. I think that was the idea here but it falls apart in a big way. Poor Jeannot Szwarc who has spent years and years in Television but in the eighties was the name behind Jaws 2, and then back to back this film and Supergirl (both big flops.) You can even see a similar style between this and Supergirl (a film I appreciate as a campy fun classic.) Santa Claus unfortunately just feels flat from every angle. I don't think it even sits in the Christmas classic genre. It is underwhelming in many, many ways. 5.5/10