Dan All-Christmassy
Things have been going down hill for Dan (Ethan Erickson), his business is on the verge of collapse and he spent so much time trying to make it work that his wife Linda (Anne Dudek) wants a divorce. Wanting to give his children everything they want and no money in the bank Dan takes a job as a mall Santa which doesn't work out well when he ends up in a row with a kid who recognizes him. With everything seeming to be conspiring against him Dan blames Santa for making Christmas bad for him until he finds himself meeting a jolly old chap who claims to be Santa (Donovan Scott) and who decides to let Dan be Santa for Christmas with the help of hard-working elf assistant Eddie (Sean Astin). Now with the power the question is will Dan discover what is really important come Christmas.
"Bruce Almighty" he had the power thanks to God paying him a visit when he felt depressed and after Bruce had some fun with the power learned some important lessons. Well the basic concept of "Bruce Almighty" has been turned in to a Christmas movie with Dan getting a visit from Santa, gets the chance to play Santa and finds out that with Santa power and a Santa card nothing is impossible. But of course Dan has an important lesson to learn before the movie is over and it is not spoiler to say so because "Santa Switch" is obvious from start to finish.
Of course on top of the Christmas take on "Bruce Almighty" we have other Christmas movie cliches as such Dan finds being Santa not easy and he has to deal with Eddie the elf who in typical fashion is there to assist him in getting things right. Basically there is not a single idea in "Santa Switch" which I haven't seen before and that extends to the performances. In fact the only thing which surprised me about the "Santa Switch" was why was Sean Astin, yes he who played Samwise Gamgee, was doing in such an unoriginal movie.
What this all boils down to is that whilst I have watched a lot better Christmas movies than "Santa Switch" I have also watched a lot worse and whilst I would be lying if I said that it kept my attention for the entire movie it is amusing enough for young teens.
Tags: TV Christmas Movies, Santa Claus, Christmas Movies
