Santa Who?

Empty TV movie about Santa losing his reindeer in mid-air, falling out of his sleigh, and forgetting who he is.

It comes as a bewildering surprise when, towards the end of the film, it transpires that the sleigh can fly without reindeer.

This is a film that very much wants to be a comedy, but doesn't seem to have had many actual jokes written for it. I rarely criticise a film for not being funny enough, because that's really a statement about me and what I laugh at. My point here is that this just doesn't seem to contain many lines that are intended to be gags in the first place. This is a real shame, because the movie's tone throughout is that of a family comedy, yet despite being very likable, it never quite manages to deliver on the second half of that.

One thing the film nails from the word go though is the casting of Leslie Nielsen in the title role. Despite being similarly bereft of material to work with, this guy is the definition of friendly, and fills Saint Nick's shoes perfectly throughout. The scene when he's auditioning to be a store Santa, but unable to even to do his own ho ho ho-ing, is… well they should really have gone somewhere with that.

It's all good, schmaltzy, Christmassy fun, but at time of writing there are no 'memorable quotes' listed on the imdb.

:)

(available here)