Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
68
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
xx
Ninja Assassin
xx
Old Dogs
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
xx
Princess & the Frog, The
53
Road, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
45
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
78
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The![]()
50
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The![]()
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
EMAILPRINTBuena Vista Pictures

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 23 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Family/Kids | Fantasy
Written by:
Ed Decter
John J. Strauss
Leo Benvenuti (characters)
Steve Rudnick (characters)
Directed by: Michael Lembeck
Release Date:
Theatrical: November 3, 2006
DVD: November 20, 2007
Running Time: 98 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: G for General Audiences
Starring Tim Allen, Martin Short, Elizabeth Mitchell, Judge Reinhold, Wendy Crewson, Eric Lloyd, Ann-Margret, and Kevin Pollak
Holiday magic mixes with comical chaos at the North Pole in The Santa Clause 3 as Santa juggles a full house of family and the mischievous Jack Frost tries to take over the "big guy's" holiday. (Disney)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: The Santa Clause The Santa Clause 2
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Allen and Short seem to be having so much fun that their enthusiasm is entirely contagious. Let the season begin.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour
As a full-service holiday movie, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause gets you into the mood to shop early and often by making the North Pole look like a shopping mall with a never-ending school pageant.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand
This isn't a movie, it's an animatronic theme-park ride - an artificially processed, easily digestible treat for kids.Ho, ho hum.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
There's some potential in this storyline, but the movie doesn't do much with it besides giving Martin Short an opportunity to put on the fat suit.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter
The Santa Clause 3 is a colourful jumble. (But quite a bit better than Jungle 2 Jungle). Nevertheless, whether parent or elf, You might laugh when you watch it in spite of yourself.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirshling
This Styrofoam snowman of a sequel overdoses on its own candy-cane-colored sugary cheer.
Read Full Review >Variety Justin Chang
Not unlike the shiny snow globe at its center, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause is a thing of consummate craftsmanship, a smoothly engineered and fundamentally lifeless object that's nevertheless capable of giving even the grinchiest moviegoers a brief attack of the warm-and-fuzzies.
Read Full Review >Empire Angie Errigo
A little muddled and derivative but what do we expect, really?
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
To borrow a cliche from another medium, Santa might have jumped the shark.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
The bad news, for those looking forward to The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause with anything like enthusiasm, is this: Bernard the Elf is history.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
The whole film is plagued by a sense of false, desperate cheerfulness.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
There must be some solid marketing reason for putting out a Christmas movie before the jack o'lanterns have begun to rot, but if so, it's elusive. Couldn't this lump of coal have waited another month?
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Luke Y. Thompson
This is all really a big waste. At least the out-takes at the end are actually funny.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
One of the good things about bad movies is that when someone sneers about the unworthiness of a perfectly mediocre film like, say, "Crash," you can turn to a seriously unworthy film like, say, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause and laugh. Ho. Ho. Ho.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
Martin Short as Jack Frost, means we're getting a turkey and a ham for the holidays. As for Tim Allen as Scott Calvin, an ordinary guy who took over Santa's job by chance, he's more like a tasteless lump of mashed potatoes.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
It boggles the mind that Saddam Hussein and assorted cohorts have finally won their rightful place in the global noose while various and sundry villains associated with this third entry in the Santa Claus franchise of flaccidly feel-good, winter nostrums will no doubt be allowed to walk the Earth with nary a qualm nor backward glance.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 4.4 (out of 10) based on 23 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Kyle U. gave it a0:
Total CRAP!! After seeing this movie, I have lost all respect for Tim Allen and Martin Short. The only way you'd possibly like this movie is if you were 3 years old. Terrible acting! I can't believe I wasted 6 bucks on it! CRAP!
J H. gave it a2:
It's Christmas season so obviously, Tim Allen has to milk the holiday for all that it's worth by putting out another lame, derivative, pointless movie.
Don W. gave it a3:
I hope the next movie will be Santa Clause- The Death Clause. Totally awful movie. The acting, the story, and the directing were sub par. I dont recommend you waste your time or money on this movie.
JP Paxton gave it a4:
‘The Escape Clause’ actually has a pretty good premise. This is the first film in ‘The Santa Clause’ series to have a villain, which I thought was interesting. The bad thing is, Martin Short is not all that great at playing Jack Frost. He’s doesn’t portray the maliciousness I would have thought Jack Frost has. In addition, he only gets to take over and be Santa for less than ten minutes. Which really isn’t all that exciting once seen to begin with. A big letdown here is that Bernard, the head elf played by David Krumholtz previously in the first two films, is not present. He has been replaced by a new elf, Curtis, who is played by a familiar face seen in two other movies released this year starring Tim Allen, Spencer Breslin. He is downright annoying and just plain dense as head elf. I guess Krumholtz was happy enough with his role on the TV show ‘Numb3rs’ that he didn’t feel the need to return here. Although it is filled mediocrity through and through ‘The Escape Clause’ is actually okay for kids. It has simple (but not funny) jokes and enough “action” to keep them well entertained. For adults and parents though, it will mostly likely be a living nightmare to watch. There is no uncertainty that it would have been much better suited as a direct-to-DVD release though.
J G. gave it a9:
I think the SC3 was very good, ok not quite as good as the first 2 but still better than I was expecting... I think Jack S. needs to get into the Christmas spirit and not judge a move by the soundtrack or a speech problem a character has!
Gerrick C. gave it a4:
Personally, the whole Santa Claus thing with Scott Calvin has overstayed its welcome. Okay, the idea of Short as Jack Frost is cute, but ultimately is pretty lame.
Doug M. gave it a10:
I just saw the movie and now I am going to watch the first two films again. I think this carries on the spirit well.
