santa claus

There should be an entirely different set of criteria used to judge children’s films. One fart joke you can ignore. Two fart jokes is becoming slightly odious. And three or more is just pandering to the pre-pubescent crowd that probably has their fingers up their collective noses. “The Santa Clause 2” takes the high road for most family fare, mixing some grown-up punchlines with all the expected childish hijinks. And only one reindeer passing gas. Tim Allen reprises his role as Santa from the previous film, now faced with finding a wife before Christmas Eve or losing all his magical powers. The elves make a duplicate Santa to run things at the North Pole while the real big guy enters the singles scene. But things get ugly when the replacement turns into a plastic Mussolini, putting every kid in the world on the naughty list. Meanwhile, Santa falls for his teenage son’s Scrooge-like principal and gets stuck in the middle of a family crisis. That’s a lot of whole lot of trouble stuffed into “The Santa Clause 2’s” stocking. And for a holiday feel good film, there’s an unusual amount of dark humor – particularly the toy soldier “enforcers” the replacement Santa employs to keep the elves in line. Most of it will go comfortably over children’s heads as they’re entertained by Chet, the clumsy reindeer in training, and the snowglobe brilliance of Santa’s workshop village. Not as “kiddie” as it could – or probably should – be, “Santa Claus 2” is unexpectedly clever and enjoyable despite being as predictable as your 20th viewing of “Rudolph.” Give credit to Tim Allen who brings all the charm and familiarity to the role of St. Nick that he did to his doofus Tool Man on TV. Adam Sandler’s performance in “Punch Drunk Love” has been hailed as new direction from the slob humor that made him the hero of frat boys everywhere. That’s not really true. Sandler is same, it’s the film that has changed around him. Director P.T. Anderson (“Boogie Nights,” “Magnolia”) takes Sandler’s well-established character traits – childlike innocence interrupted by moments of skull-smashing rage – and puts them in the character of ?, a self-employed obsessive-compulsive neurotic basket case who finds true love on a blind date with ?, (Emily Watson). But when he’s blackmailed by thugs from a phone sex line, ?’s dream of a happy ending is threatened. “Punch Drunk Love” avoids the show-off style that marked Anderson’s earlier films and sees him returning to the simplistic roots of “Hard Eight,” his first feature. An unusual mix of art film and quirky independent, the film is impossible to categorize and equally difficult to analyze. All of which will make it a classic to some and simply unwatchable to others, especially those expecting your standard Sandler yuk-fest. Anderson’s films always make you squirm. And “Punch Drunk” really turns the screws. ?’s