Give it the Boot
News has made its way back up to the North Pole that children are out of control and the Elves are not happy about making these little monsters toys only for Santa (Doug Kaye) to take all the credit. With the Elves staging a strike Santa takes desperate measures and magically transports six of the bratty teenagers to his home for a boot camp, where they will go through the training which the Elves go through.
IT'S A CHILDREN'S MOVIE, apologies as I tend to avoid writing in caps but I had to make clear the most important thing about "Santa's Boot Camp" straight away because any inquisitive grown up wanting some Christmas entertainment might as well know that this is aimed at Children and offered very little in the form of festive fun for those older than I guess 10. Trying to think of what I would watch when I was 8 years old I actually think there may be an outside chance I would find this entertaining but I am not sure whether I would have been groaning as much as laughing.
Now what you get is a group of bratty children getting some lessons in being kind, appreciative, having manners and so on having been forced to take part in Elf training. And whilst it at times feels like a mix between the annoying children from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with the diversity of characters from "The Breakfast Club", which is kind of weird, it does seem to have a noble side as it tries to be amusing and teach the audience a lesson or two.
The thing is that at times "Santa's Boot Camp" all seems a bit misguided. For one we have a scene involving a Jewish elf wearing lipstick saying he wanted to be the Hanukkah elf whilst the elves who go on strikes seem to be more bratty than the actual bratty children. All of this combined with the fact that the young cast features a young, unrecognizable cast and that this was clearly made with limited funds makes it a movie which asks a huge stretch of the imagination to buy into it.
What this all boils down to is that maybe young children around the age of 8 will enjoy "Santa's Boot Camp" for the silliness factor but for those who are it might be a little bit to cheap and silly. And as for any grown ups who watch this, well I suggest you just don't.
Tags: Santa Claus, Christmas Movies
