Miracle on 34th Street (1994)

There are some movies in which one watches in life which has no real intention but to make a person feel good about not only themselves but for the collective people. Miracle on 34th Street does this for me. Not only does the performance of all the cast make this memorable but the there is no real person which you end up hating, except maybe 2. This is a must movie for all Christmas lovers out there who just want a tale told to them which will make them as warm as that eggnog they drink that night, (unless you drink it cold like in Australia). Brilliant movie which I watch every Christmas. In conclusion, it is a movie which once watching it and allowing one's self to be captivated by its charm, one finally feels like a kid again. And anyway which is worse? 'A lie that brings a smile, or a truth which draws a tear' Best Santa I have seen

Fmovies: Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to! This movie has always inspired me to believe, and I have grown up watching it time and time again. If... you can't believe, if you can't accept anything on faith, then you're doomed for a life dominated by doubt. Kris Kringle tells us this, and the movie tells us this. It shows us that Kris Kringle, Santa Clause, Saint Nicholas.. is a symbol. A symbol of faith, and a symbol of hope. Christmas is not for children, or for those who are young. Christmas is for all, and if you believe Christmas Miracles can come true. Hope is the greatest of the gifts you'll receive. Christmas and Santa Clause gives us hope.

Every time that I start to watch this movie I cannot stop. I have spent many late nights watching this wonderful movie. This is truly a film for the whole family to enjoy. A must buy for every family that enjoys Christmas.

Miracle on 34th Street fmovies. I read many reviews of this film and the original and I was shocked by some of them. I saw this version of the film first and I was amazed. It is a warm, decent, traditional film about courage, faith and hope, that motivates to fight against evil and protect the good. Later I saw the original 1947 version and I liked it, but I can't say it was better than this version. It is difficult to compare after you see one film and love it and then see another version like it more than than the first you saw. But after all I like the new ideas of this film. They are really improvements of the story and the film fits more for the current audience, since less generations lie between it and the film. The film is really well done and Richard Attenborough is a fantastic Santa Claus.

A pretty darn awesome remake. It may bring some extra 90's cheese, mostly due to the needlessly dramatic music, and it may be overlong in places, but this certainly works. Attenborough is the only person I could imagine taking over this role. He comes across as a genuinely kind and considerate man, with nothing but kindness in his heart. Like the original, it keeps silent as to whether he is Santa or not. The court scene is particularly funny, with a few fist pumping moments. I'd still pick the original, but if you can't sit your whole family down in front of a black and white film, this certainly doesn't offend the original.

Richard Attenborough returned to acting after 14 years behind the camera in "Jurassic Park", and followed it swiftly by daring to challenge comparison with Oscar-winner Edmund Gwenn in this remake.

As a heartwarmer for those inadequates who won't sit through a 60-year-old monochrome movie-- albeit one which rivals "It's a Wonderful Life" as Hollywood's answer to "A Christmas Carol"-- this John Hughes revamp will probably serve. Anyhow, there are plenty of copies on sale at the checkout of my local supermarket. But it is a bit too laid-back and, latterly, too bogged down in argument for younger kids or older boys. It may warm more cockles among the grandparents.

The main thematic interest is how Hughes chooses to tweak the original screen story as adapted (unusually for the time) by the director, George Seaton. Whether he sought to or not, the remake has thrown up some intriguing twists for a more skeptical and secular time.

The oldie caught the mood of an America yearning to get back to normalcy amid the perils of the post-war, Cold War world. Location shooting in New York City, with much co-operation from Macys, gave a touch of realism to the fantasy, whereas in 1994 it's an imaginary store and (for Americans, at least) an incongruously "veddy British" claimant to the chair of Santa Claus- although his nationality is not the issue when the legal meanies of the State of New York try to get him confined to the bughouse.

What is striking is the judge's rationale for allowing Kris's plea for freedom. Because US bills have "In God We Trust" on them, he reasons, it means New York is allowed to have blind faith in the existence of a supernatural being who lays presents on 1.7 billion children in one night, operating from invisible workshops with reindeer which cannot be made to fly in a courtroom demonstration of his powers because it isn't Christmas Eve. Besides, the sneery prosecutor's kids were raised to believe in him, so there- case closed.

In real life the ACLU would be appealing such a judgement all the way to the Supreme Court for allowing too much religion into the law and the public square. "In God We Trust" was only put on the money during the Cold War, to cock a snook at "Godless bolshevism"; but this film is refreshingly disrespectful to the newer orthodoxy of playing down most Americans' beliefs in their films.

Kris asks if he should swear in the Bible, the Pope's ruling on Nicholas's sanctity is debated, and the ethos is quietly but unmistakably Christian. No "spiritual" Santa or "Happy Holidays" here. In a very light fashion, the film does revolve issues of how far it is legitimate to maintain a metaphor as a source of inspiration when rationalism of the Dawkins and Hitchens strain is sniping at it. The screenplay also looks quite beadily at the way commercial operators use holy myth to make money, even if the message comes muted from Hollywood.

That is the good news. There's plenty to carp at as well.

Attenborough's quiet, gentle but firm performance (most atypical of one who spent his previous acting time mainly playing unreliables or martinets) suffuses the film. He gets little competition, save from the contrasted crustiness of Windom. Most of the support is so-so, on the level of a Yuletide TV special, and not excluding little Wilson as the girl who has faith in Mr Kringle's claim to be St Nicholas. She i