Miracle on 34th Street poster & wallpaper

Dylan McDermott, Elizabeth Perkins, J.T. Walsh

A six-year-old has doubts about childhood's most enduring miracle... Santa Claus. The arrival of one Kris Kringle, a department store Santa who believes he's the genuine article, turns the skeptical c...( read more  read more... )hild's world upside down.

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66% liked it

49,937 ratings

G, 1 hr. 54 min.

Directed by: Les Mayfield

Release Date: November 18, 1994

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DVD Release Date: October 5, 1999

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movie poster Edmund Gwenn in Miracle on 34th Street Miracle on 34th Street
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Flixster Reviews (1,971)

  • hypathio7
    September 29, 2009
    hypathio7
    Not as good as the original.
  • stopitgoaway
    August 8, 2009
    stopitgoaway
    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 monoc...( read more)hrome 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 is no Margaret O'Brien, if no worse in her way than the kewpie-doll Natalie Wood. In fact, she's a John Hughes moppet who did little later and nothing since 2000.

    The narrative's departures from the well shaped original are no help. Once off the legal hook, Kris, wearing a brown suit, just disappears-- we don't see any triumphal sleigh ride to bid him adieu-- while attention shifts to a ridiculous post-midnight-mass impromptu wedding in a Catholic church. Then follows a trip out to a dream house in the snowy country, ushered by a silly salesman. The film does not seem to know when to call a halt, and there's not so much as Clarence's tinkling bell to bring back Kris at the close. It's as if the whole object of the exercise was to unite two bland characters in matrimony.
  • puffchunk
    October 23, 2007
    puffchunk
    yes, santa is real. Go cry about it.
  • AgentLexi2132
    August 20, 2007
    AgentLexi2132
    Makes a fine addition to my collection.
  • thmtsang
    August 5, 2007
    thmtsang
    Heart warming movie about a girl who doesn't believe in Santa.
  • kogrone
    November 23, 2009
    kogrone
    Not as good as the original but cute.
  • bluesgirl2
    November 13, 2009
    bluesgirl2
    The original is better!
  • rew69er
    November 12, 2009
    rew69er
    prob seen....prob crap....definetly left no impression
  • RachelJezel
    September 8, 2009
    RachelJezel
    O-M-G the sweetest movie I've ever seen. I love this delightful remake of a classic, and you will too. The cast is fabulous. In the end, this film is just perfect.
  • BlackSouls666
    August 17, 2009
    BlackSouls666
    A nice movie in the christmas season

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Comments

  • grandmadora16
    August 18, 2007
    grandmadora16
    This has to be one of my all time favorite movies!! I own both versions the old and the new!!! ahhh
  • xokarmenxo
    March 31, 2007
    xokarmenxo
    oh my gosh i love dis movie i loved dis lil gurl wen i was lil she is soooo adorable! im 14 now and i loved her movies! but mara really grown up now shes in her twnties now right...
  • maryam3114
    October 29, 2006
    maryam3114
    Hey! That's Mara Wilson's Movie. No Startting. Mara Wilson Was A Little Girl!
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Miracle on 34th Street Trivia

  • What young actress starred in such films as Miracle on 34th Street, Matilda and A Simple Wish?  Answer »
  • Name the 1947 movie that is still seen today on tv,starring,Maureen O'Hara,Edmund Gwenn,John Payne& Natalie Woods,about a dept store Santa,a little girl who still believes & her world weary mother who doesn't believe in anything good.?  Answer »
  • In Miracle on 34th Street, who told Susan's character that she can't believe in Santa Claus?  Answer »
  • What does Susan wish for in Miracle on 34th Street?  Answer »
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