Sometimes the third time is the charm. Other times it's three strikes and you're out.

Unfortunately, Santa is looking a lot like the World Series' Detroit Tigers in Tim Allen's third outing as Scott Calvin -- aka Father Christmas -- in "Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause." His factory at the North Pole keeps churning out toys at record speed, but his screenwriters are running out of ideas. Since "The Santa Clause" grossed nearly $145 million domestically and "The Santa Clause 2" took in about $139 million, name recognition and nostalgia might be enough to capture audiences for this third episode. But to borrow a cliche from another medium, Santa might have jumped the shark.

The film actually feels like sitting in on a story session with writers Ed Decter & John J. Strauss (two of the writers of the first sequel): How about Santa Claus vs. Jack Frost with Jack miffed at Santa's getting a major holiday while Jack only gets passing mention when people feel cold? Or what if Santa has in-laws who drop in during his busiest season? Hey, to play the meddlesome pair we could get Ann-Margret and Alan Arkin -- didn't he star in a movie titled "The In-Laws" once? Or let's do yet another take on that well-worn Christmas classic "It's a Wonderful Life!" Who just groaned?

That was the audience, actually, as all three ideas -- none exactly scintillating -- get jammed into the 92-minute movie. First Mrs. Claus, that would be Carol Calvin (Elizabeth Mitchell), is in her ninth month of pregnancy and missing her folks terribly, so Scott invites the in-laws for a visit. The kicker is that somehow no one has ever told them that their son-in-law is Santa, so the North Pole is disguised as Canada and the elves as ... Canadians. Why is no one laughing? Doesn't everyone realize that any mention of Canada in a comedy is hilarious?

OK, then Jack Frost enters in the person of Martin Short, a multitalented performer who can be so very good in the right roles and so very not good in bad ones. Jack Frost is not a good role (though Short somewhat redeems himself in a musical number "North Pole, North Pole" to the tune of Kander and Ebb's "New York, New York").

Jack's main if not only attribute is a West Hollywood makeover of freeze-dried hair, snow and ice clinging to his face and clothes worthy of a Liberace appearance in the Arctic. His character is assigned the mean-spirited task of sabotaging everything at the North Pole to wreck Christmas so that Scott will wish he never took up the role of Santa. You're still not laughing?

Well, the big payoff comes when, through ruse and trickery, Jack manages to reverse time and their roles so that he is Santa and Scott is, well, Scott. As Santa, Jack turns the North Pole into a crassly commercial theme park whose mantra to children is that a parent's love can be judged by how much they spend on presents.

There are sub-subplots involving Scott's extended family -- son Charlie (Eric Lloyd), ex-wife Laura (Wendy Crewson), her husband Neil (Judge Reinhold) and their precocious daughter Lucy (Liliana Mumy) -- and a pack of "legendary figures," which allows for gag cameos by Kevin Pollak (Cupid), Jay Thomas (Easter Bunny) and Peter Boyle (Father Time), though the mere appearance of the exquisite Aisha Tyler as Mother Nature nearly transforms the MPAA rating from G to PG.

What is seriously missing here is any sense of fun and warmth, which the other movies did possess. This one looks like work. From overstated sets, obvious costumes, insistent music and hammy acting, it's clear that director Michael Lembeck has everyone working overtime to pump life into this "Santa Clause." The "escape" in the movie's title soon feels very alluring.