Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause

The worst of the three, and that's saying something.

Setting the vast majority of the film at the North Pole kind of defeats the point of the franchise. I'd compare it to Terminator Salvation, which doesn't work because in Terminator we want to see time-traveling future robots interacting with modern people. In Santa Clause, we want to see an incongruous Santa out in normal society. Here he's just with his elves and reindeer and stuff. Thus the movie is dull.

Ho, ho, Hold the phone. Pretty terrible

Ahem...yes. Mmmm, well: within the subgenre of lousy family-values-pushing mediocre straight-to-television Christmas films, I guess this is no fuck it: This is shit anyway you look at it.

The first Santa Clause carried a PG rating for some mild profanity and innuendo. Too bad. The second one scored a sweeter G, but soft-pedaled the impact of divorce on children and tossed in a few lines establishing Mother Nature as the supreme authority in the universe. Frustrating. Does the third installment come with a disclaimer? (pluggedin.com)

Once again, instead of making a tender, sweet, cute Christmas story, the writers continue to insult us with a moronic twisted plot and ridiculous dialog. I have to wonder who they are trying to entertain? This movie is another example of an excellent cast, with plenty of money for making a great movie, but instead it is just squandered away to make a pathetically sad comedy that fails to be funny, telling a twisted story even a child would dislike.

More disappointment from a now unnecessary franchise. Good first movie but the whole thing has now gone downhill. Allen still fits in Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause but it's humor and writing are basically awful.

1

A scathing critique of the commercialisation of Christmas (yes, I appreciate the irony of Disney making such a film) which is sillier than the two preceding films but not in a good way. However Martin Short as Jack Frost is a delightfully villainous Santa Clause wannabe.

Staring Tim the Toolman Taylor.

no

Why god why? Why do you let Tim Allen live? And more importantly, why did you let me watch this movie?

Not good.

I enjoyed Martin Short in this movie.

Ally-watched at work. Pretty bad but the cast is pretty good for something so stupid.

This movie was just plain bad.It was awful.

All of the typical bullshit of '00s holiday movies is here, but it's weird even beyond that. Most obviously, the first act stretches over two-thirds of the movie, and the conflict everything's been building towards gets resolved in maybe twenty minutes. Also, it's way more contrived than it needs to be, it reuses footage from both the first movie and itself to pad out a thin runtime, Martin Short is constantly acting seductive even toward the underage characters... odd and bad.

One Clause? Sure. Two Clauses? Okay. Three Clauses? Now that's just ridiculous. This film is only watchable because Martin Short doesn't have it in him to phone in a performance.

NO TIM ALLEN NO

hey i'm tim allen lets phone in some crap for a dead franchise because i'm an unfunny hack

While Short is an entertaining addition, The Escape Clause is the weakest entry in The Santa Clause trilogy. While these films have always had the theme of commercialism versus family, this entry seems particularly lazy with it. Honestly, I didn't hate the film, but it's not good with poor dialogue, too much unnecessary overacting from the adults (save Allen & Short) and a plot that is trope that reeks of creative desperation.

Tellsclassstorywhenshewaspreg+suspendjackfrostupstaging-helpsinstead+exwifefam/inlawscome-pretendcanada+hermom'sababe+hallofsnowglobes+trickwishneversanta+northpolethemepark+exdivorcedcuzsonrejectedstepdad+recordtrickback+herhugwarmsJheart+bornBuddy

There is nothing redeeming about this movie. Even in the middle of December, prime viewing time for this shit, I'd pick almost any other fucking Christmas movie. No, ANY other Christmas movie. I'd watch non-Christmas movies. The first film was clever and cute, while not being great. The second movie was absolute shit. This... I'm ashamed to say that I was dragged to the theater to see this as part of the trilogy, having watched the other two earlier in the day. Movie was still shit.

Somehow I did not know that this even existed until this Christmas. I enjoy the original quite a bit, despite its many flaws. The second one was terrible, though, so I'm not sure why I even bothered putting this on. I didn't make it very far, but what I did see was well below even the terrible second installment.

Terrible on pretty much all aspects. Avoid.

Just don't.

Made me want to cry myself to sleep.

Uhh... not very good.

"Kids, you can tell how much your parents love you by how far away they keep you from this worthless fiasco." - Rob Humanick

Would be an utter disaster if Martin Short wasn't utterly amazing in every scene. Also of note: they use the same damn kid to play the son... Crazy...

bad movie

The parts I was awake for sucked.

1+ avoid at all costs

I can understand Judge Reinhold and Tim Allen, but really? Peter Boyle?

A part of me still thinks this movie is a joke.

Santa Clause 3 gains most of its positive points from Martin Short. He carries the movie beyond its pointless existence and into a world where a central villain can make an entire movie worthwhile. Tim Allen does fine, but overall this third in the franchise is totally forgettable. Martin Short is amazing and underrated, even here.