Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Stephen Abell Though this movie sports a decent cast it still falls short of creating a decent movie. For one, the story isn't too original. Santa is feeling a little under-appreciated and so decides to take the year off. The thing is he doesn't since everything is resolved before Christmas Eve - so even the title of the movie is incorrect.Then, though I've loved Goodman since Rosanne, he just doesn't cut it as the big guy, and his head elf in charge of toy production, Sparky (Kattan), is just plain annoying. If it wasn't for Ethan Suplee and Eddie Griffin as the rogue elves in search of a human child who still believes in Christmas then this would have been one dire movie.Harvey Fierstein is great as the Fire Meiser who along with his brother Snow Meiser control the Earths weather. It's Fierstein's loud and gruff voice along with his overacting that adds to the comedic performance of his character. It's just a shame that they have to sing... and to have some pretty dreadful special effects, especially in the boxing match when Sparky gets into the action.There are a few decent ideas, such as "The Divide" which separates the real world from The North Pole and "The Veil" which keeps them hidden from onlookers. There are also a few good scenes, I particularly liked the BEGOTHS at the toy expo in the opening sequence.That said, I wouldn't really recommend this movie to many people as it appears staid and dated by today's standards. I even think that kids could be bored and uninterested as the film is uncertain of its audience - kids, teens, young adults, adults? It feels uncomfortable trying to please everyone.If there's nothing else on and you're trapped in your home while in a blizzard and there's nothing else to watch...

miles99999 This was an absolutely awful remake of a holiday classic. There was a movie some years ago called Scrooged (with Bill Murray). In that movie that are producing a version of Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol". The version that they create is absolutely over the top and insane. I think that this remake of "A Year Without a Santa Claus" is that to a "T".This production was so over the top it completely wrecked the movie. The casting was atrocious...John Goodman as Santa wasn't that bad, but Harvey Fierstein as the Heat Miser and Michael McKean as the Snow Miser...come on are you kidding! Fierstein killed the most memorable song from the original movie. What about the Miser Brother's assistants, any reason they were cast as hot female models (not that I don't appreciate eye-candy)? As for the storyline....why did they create this "new" story? Yeah, it follows the basic idea as the original, but the story was basically completely different.Please avoid this movie at all costs if you are a fan of the original. This one is too over the top, too long, and too crappy.

BigBish1966 An abomination so heinous, so repulsive, so reprehensible that the excess amount of bile that my body doesn't process because of my missing gall bladder creeps up my esophagus thinking about it.I speak of the atrocity that was recently aired on CBS - The Year Without A Santa Clause. Not the beloved Rankin/Bass production, but a live action piece of televised diarrhea. John Goodman as santa, Delta Burke as Mrs Claus? Harvey Fierstien as Heat Miser?!!!! Dear god in heaven what have they done?...... What have they done? ( I was saving that for when the US was nuked ah la Jericho, but this is worse... far worse).I'll admit that curiosity made me tune in. I'm human. But Randy from My Name is Earl as Jangle? A black Jingle? Dancing girls in the Heat Miser/Cold Miser numbers? When did a bump and grind ( over and above the Victorias Secet Fashion Show) become a part of Christmas tradition? The claymation Misers didn't need it. No they didn't. They were pure entertainment. I'd rather the controversy of devil/angel that kept it off TV for so many years to a musical number from Solid Gold.Someone needs to bury this, and bury it deep. Its a national disgrace. You want insurgents to surrender- tape their eyes open and force then to watch this over & over. It will make them beg to be degregaded at abul grad.The tragedy of this is that it was 2 hours. I only watched 20 minutes before I was diving for the puke bucket.

mretalli1 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.