A Disappointing Continuation

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

This movie is pretty good. Most TV movies don't impress me much, especially if they're holiday themed movies, most of the holiday xmas movies just seem so stupid and completely cheesy. I tend to avoid them as if they were the black plague. So I was really surprised by this movie. I rented it from Blockbuster but you can buy it from Amazon.com.I think what makes this movie work is that they have a good cast. Jenny McCarthy is taking better roles. I remember Ivan from that old show "Jack and Jill." He is so gorgeous. Anyway, I loved seeing him together with Jenny. Yes the story is familiar, but it was just done so well, that its worth watching. I'd buy it on DVD.

I no longer think of Playboy when I hear the name Jenny McCarthy. I now think of Autism, and good acting. She does a superb job in this charming and funny Christmas story.Santa (George Wendt) is having heart trouble and so mom (Lynne Griffin) calls Mary Class (she changed her name) home. Mary (McCarthy) is a successful workaholic that has always had a rough time with dad (WHO HASN'T?). She wants efficiency, while he stick to tradition.She also left a beau (Ivan Sergei) when she left home and has new boyfriend in the big city. You can imagine the problems there when the two meet.So you have family struggle on a grand scale, relationship problems and lots of comedy in a great Christmas movie.Also stars Kandyse McClure, who will be familiar to "Battlestar Galactica" fans, who creates a little heat of her own.

This is not the first story about Santa planning to retire, and let a son/daughter take over the toy manufacturing and delivery business. The idea has been done before, often and better.Apparently, Santa's daughter Mary (Jenny McCarthy) was once as kind hearted and sweet as her folks and the elves that work for them. For whatever reason, she veered from her famous father's (George Wendt) path, and became a corporate junior exec with a big mouth and an attitude to match. When she discovers her dad is physically unable to perform his duties one season, she butts in, takes over, and embarks on a board room mentality approach to revamp the North Pole toyshop for greater "efficiency." The dialogue is needlessly negative, as she mocks generosity, Christmas cheer, elves, and her amiable father. Here's a typical line from the movie, as an example of the overall tone: "Here's a stocking....stuff it." Original and hilarious, isn't it?The acting rises above the script, and there's a sweet, sentimental romance in the later going of the film. It's a shame that the meanness early on may lead you to shut this thing off before it introduces this element. If you can make it through the first half of the film, you may find a dose of Christmas spirit from the movie near the end.

This is a highly predictable movie, but exceedingly sweet, as Jenny McCarthy, a demographics-driven marketing expert goes back to take over the family business -- the Santa Claus operations for daddy, of course -- and discovers the true meaning of Christmas. The jokes are a little weak as elves stop work every seventeen minutes for cookie breaks and Ms. McCarthy is a little strident.George Wendt is surprisingly good at producing a layered performance as Santa Claus. Everyone else falls into patterns that you would expect in a post-millennium movie in which Christmas is freed from all religious significance, but it has its moments and its charms.