Jingle All The Way
JINGLE ALL THE WAY (PG)
D: Brian Levant
20th Century Fox (Chris Columbus, Mark Radcliffe & Michael
Barnathan)
US 1996
88 mins
Comedy
W: Randy Kornfield
DP: Victor J. Kemper
Ed: Kent Beyda, Wilton Henderson & Adam
Weiss
Mus: David Newman
Arnold Schwarzenegger (Howard Langston), Sinbad (Myron
Larabee), Phil Hartman (Ted Maltin), Rita Wilson (Liz Langston), Robert Conrad (Officer Alexander Hummell), Jake Lloyd (Jamie Langston)
The mid-90's saw action guy Arnie take a step away from the
genres which saw him become so successful, in favour of more family-audience aimed projects.
Jingle All The Way was as low brow as they come, inspired by
real-life events from the previous Christmas where stores failed to anticipate the popularity of Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear action figures and ran out of stock, leaving many children left wanting
when opening their gifts on Christmas morning.
That's pretty much the whole story of this film, Arnie not
wanting to disappoint his kid and searching in vain for a superhero action figure on Christmas Eve. A mission which takes him to fleapit markets and counterfeit warehouses. Also in on the chase
is "comedian" Sinbad.
Perhaps it's cynical to call this a bad film because it's
clearly aimed at children, but is this really the message that we should be giving them? That Christmas is only about material things and receiving toys are what gives the festive period it's
meaning? Stick to action movies Arnie. This is just terrible.
3/10
