Call Me Claus (2001)
And yet another movie in which Santa decides to, as Homer once put it, run out the clock in Florida (or somewhere warmer than the North Pole anyway) and looks for someone to whom to pass the red suit. You would have thought someone of Whoopi Goldberg’s stature would have known better than to get involved in this, but then, Nigel Hawthorne also chose it as his final performance. Given his many roles, more notably as the mad King George II in The Madness of same, Amistad, his many Shakespearian roles, not to mention being fondly remembered as the machiavellian and loquacious Sir Humphrey Appleby in Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister, it seems doubtful that he would have wanted to have left this as his final contribution to the world of television and cinema, but there it is. Apparently he died less than a month after the movie’s release, on Boxing Day (known to us Irish as St. Stephen’s Day). A sad loss.
Something of a twist on the old story here, with Santa warning Lucy (Goldberg) that if he doesn’t find a replacement the world will be drowned in a great flood. Why? It seems to be a typical feel-good movie where everything works out in the end, though Lucy takes some convincing. Well, you would, wouldn’t you? Is the world ready for a black Santa? I guess in 2001 they thought so. Personally, as long as it keeps her out of Ten Forward with that stupid pizza-delivery hat I’m all for it. Hokum, basically, from what I can see.
Rotten Tomatoes ratings
Tomatometer: n/a
Audience Score: 47%
IMDB rating
5.4/10
Metacritic rating
n/a
You know, I don’t get it. Some of the quotes from critics on Rotten Tomatoes are shown as “not available”. If they’re not available why have they got them there? I understand some of the magazines, blogs etc may wish to keep copyright and so don’t release the quotes, but why even show them if you can’t read them? It’s not like there’s a link so you can go to the website of whomever the critic works for. Anyway, the few who are available say this.
With Brian Stokes Mitchell and Victor Garber also trying a little too hard, according to John Leonard writing in
New York Magazine/Vulture, while Andrea Beach of
Common Sense Media notes that although it’s a
Predictable, dated holiday film is refreshingly multiracial.
Audiences were similarly underwhelmed:
It was okay - one of those movies that's good for background while doing other Christmas activities.
I think it should've been released into cinemas rather than made for TV...instead, this year - we got Elf! What's with that? Although this film is rather slow paced, it's funny in all the right places and without trying too hard.