Film Reviews

The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause

• Rating:
• Director: Michael Lembeck
• Starring: Martin Short
• Details: US / 98 mins (G).

The Santa Clause was a fine kid's movie, full of awe and fun. The Santa Clause: The Mrs Clause felt like the franchise was treading water and the third instalment sinks out of sight. Santa (Allen), aka Scott Calvin, has a lot to deal with this Christmas. His heavily pregnant wife Carol/Mrs. Claus (Elizabeth Mitchell) misses her parents and a normal life and to appease her, Scott plans to bring her family to the North Pole for Christmas - by passing it off as Canada. However, Jack Frost (Short), fed up playing second fiddle to Santa every Christmas, hatches a plan to become the new Santa, but he must get Scott out of the way first. The Santa Clause 3 brings back everyone from the previous instalments - Judge Reinhold included - and introduces new characters to help keep the franchise afloat. Short is a welcome addition, shamelessly camping up his Jack Frost, and he looks like he's having a ball. However, there isn't a lot of humour with this sequel. Arkin's deadpan wit is wasted and Allen seems too busy running around sorting everything out to have to time to get a good gag in. Short is the only one allowed room to be funny, but the majority of his jokes fall flat. For the kids, though, there are multitudes of bright colours and toys on screen at all times, but the magic and wonder is gone this time around.

Review by Gavin Burke