Creepy Cold and Charmless

Rating: 2/10 (5 January 2005)

I'll give this movie three "C"s for Creepy, Cold, and Charmless.
Someone commented that the movie might be better titled "Night of the Living Dead" for the creepy "possessed" look of the characters. I'll second that.
The action was typical 2004  something wild and dangerous happening constantly, never a dull moment in which to think or feel. If you've raised your kids on video games, they'll love it.
And the message? Well, at the very beginning the father tells the main character "Santa Claus is as real as Christmas." If that's true, then I guess Christmas is truly nothing more than a giant gift-giving extravaganza. The "poor boy" tells the other kids that he's always found Christmas disappointing -- presumably because he's never had much in the way of gifts. At the end of the movie, he finally ecstatically embraces Christmas  in the form of a huge present.
The best Christmas show every made, in my opinion, was the less than ½ hour original "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr. Seuss. The sum-it-up message of THAT show was:
"Christmas Day is in our grasp/ As long as we have hands to clasp.
Welcome Christmas while we stand/ Heart to heart and hand in hand."
"The Polar Express" is all about belief  but not belief in the miracle of the birth of Jesus Christ  not even belief in the beauty of Christmas itself. It's about believing in the big fat guy in the red suit and confidence that you'll find a pile of presents under that tree come Christmas morning. That kind of Christmas can easily be stolen by any Grinch.