Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

A Major Disappointment

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Yes, I gave this a 2. I wasn't able to pay attention to the whole thing, so I wanted to be fair.1) Was the dubbing SUPPOSED to be off during the film? If you have ever watched a kung-fu movie, then you have some idea of what the dubbing was like. In the beginning of the movie, the dubbing was twice as bad. The voice over work was TERRIBLE. I think film students could have done better after they've partied all night.2) The special effects were TERRIBLE. I swear, I could see wrinkles in a few of the back drops. The effects seemed to be very outdated. The elves didn't really have pointy ears either.3) Skimpy costumes. This was supposed to be a movie for kids, right? Well, black leather and bikinis don't really fit in a Christmas movie, I'm sorry. I would say it had no magic at all.The TV guide review said that this movie didn't capture the magic of the original. I would say it had no magic. I could go on, but I keep twitching when I think of the movie. It was very slow, and unwatchable. Watch it if you must, but it's not really so bad it's funny. It's just plain bad.

John Goodman as Santa Claus? Pleeease. He gives Santa's from any movie, TV special or mall a bad name. Well for the exception of the movie "Bad Santa". He was even worse than ole Billy Bob's Santa. He was unkempt and resembled a alcoholic version of his character. I think the director and writer were going for the opposite of the animated version, because that is what they got. Too bad John Goodman never saw the original. His comment in an interview was to make him a "grumpy old bastard". How in the spirit of Christmas is that comment. They didn't let Delta Burke use her own southern accent, and yet listen to Goodman, and he is anything unlike has ever been heard from a Santa. The original had Mrs. Claus, Jingle & Jangle more prominent. They should have left it that way and left Goodman's part minimal, very minimal, or just chose someone else to do it. He should stick with animated voices like "Frosty". The character of "Sparky" (Chris Kattan) should have been left out. He was annoying. He & Goodman should have just stayed in their trailers or where ever bad actors go. Eddie Griffin & Ethan Suplee did pretty good for the scripts they had. It is hard to make bad material good, but they did good. Delta's part was way too small but she did do pretty good as well. The producers, director and writers should be a shamed of themselves for putting such crap out their. It is worse than anything I have ever seen.

I watched this on TV last night, and I just want to say first and foremost that I am a die-hard Rankin Bass fan. That being said: It wasn't bad in terms of TV special quality (which isn't saying much). The first will always be better; great original Christmas specials can never be made better. But it made three choices that make it OK in my book: 1) It was not remade as a CG feature (who else was creeped out by the bad CG animation remakes these last few years?).2) It kept at least one of the Rankin Bass songs. I had so prepared myself for the lack of music, which defines the magic of the original... but we do get to hear a live action remake of the Heat Miser / Cold Miser song that I thoroughly enjoyed (with choreographed sexy dancing ladies, for some reason). It's rare to see characters singing anymore in TV or the Movies; even the latest Disney films lack that, so I was surprised and delighted to hear this version.3) It claims to be based on the original book of the same name that Rankin and Bass based their story on, therefore giving more room for interpretation without necessarily being a remake of the original movie.Of course, there are noticeable flaws. Overuse of throwbacks to previous Christmas specials and pop culture references, for one. The acting was very stilted, and it was obvious that many of these NBC TV stars were fulfilling an obligation of some sort to the network. The editing, writing, and costuming was often downright confusing (can anyone help explain Carol Kane's getup?).But did I enjoy myself? Yup. Do I expect to see this on TV again next year? Definitely not. So try to catch it if you can; if not, just pop in the original and have a very merry holiday.

I fondly remember the 1974 Rankin-Bass version of "The Year Without A Santa Claus" and was looking forward to seeing this. I feel let down by it in just about every aspect. The casting was so-so, John Goodman did a fair job as Santa, but Delta Burke as Mrs. Claus wasn't given as much to do as Shirley Booth in the original. Chris Kattan's Sparky became annoying quite quickly, as did the script's constant barrage of in-jokes for adults (since it was shown at the 9PM-11PM time slot they probably thought it was necessary to attract an adult audience.) But the most grievous fault of this film was to fail to capitalize on the most memorable part of the original: the Miser Brothers. Their catchy ragtime theme song was the one thing that people associate with the original. I felt the casting of Harvey Fierstein and Michael McKean was not strong, plus the idea of splicing together the brothers singing instead of having each one sing his version separately diminished the impact of the song. If they were going to stretch it out to two hours, they certainly should have found time for both versions of the song. Carol Kane's Mother Nature seemed to me to be a direct ripoff of her Ghost of Christmas Present in Scrooged. Stick with the 1974 version, this film is a Christmas turkey.