Jingle All the Way (1996)

Jingle All the Way Review 3/5It's Christmas Eve and desperate father Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to win his son over by getting him the latest action figure. Like every other spoilt brat he wants a Turbo Man doll for Christmas - Hot on the market and sold out everywhere, Arnold has to go store to store having to endure brawls and chases along the way. It's everyone for themselves and something we can all relate to in terms of last minute shopping.Phil Hartman plays the perfect neighbour who takes every opportunity smooch everyone's and anyone's wife (including Arnold's). Full of classic Christmas songs, it'll get you in the Christmas spirit (even if the message is about getting your favourite toys instead of spending time with family). The best bits are when he constantly bumps into an annoying postman played by Sinbad who is full of hilarious one liners. I would be lying if I said it wasn't fun, the film has a giddy childish energy to it and it knows what it wants to be - There are cameos from actors like Jim Belushi who plays a drunk dodgy Santa, a reindeer gets punched to the floor, Arnold has a brawl with about 20 people dressed as Santa Clause and the Christmas parade climax involves him having a fight in spandex complete with a jet pack. It's so bloody bad that it's good!

I didn't find anything worth laughing in the movie!it was completely boring,they had stretched the story for an hour and 30 minutes,with most of the time Howard roaming around to buy the action figure!The essence of a Christmas movies was lost,they have tried to come up with comedy,but it turned out to be really a bore.They could have come up with much more heart touching material,rather than a chase for a dumb toy.The role of Myron(played by Sinbad) wasn't pleasing,there was lack of humanity,it was cheap in a way.There was way too much exposure of low budget jokes!In a way it all seemed kiddish and annoying to watch.Well its an old movie cant complain more,its 2016,hopefully there wont be another Christmas movie like this to ruin the holiday!!

Released in the mid 1990's, this should have been one of my childhood favourites but somehow I didn't see this as a child and only watched it for the first time this Christmas. The longer this movie went on, the clearer it became that had I watched this as a child I would have enjoyed it much more as an adult. There were some funny scenes and Arnie was at his child-friendly best but not having childhood nostalgia to rely on, I found it a little flat.It's Christmas Eve and Arnie and his wife have had a mix up, he was supposed to pick up a toy weeks ago for his sons Christmas present. Having forgot, he sets out early on Christmas Eve morning to get one from the store, little does he know that it is the hottest toy in America and everywhere is seemingly sold out! A personal battle begins between another child's dad and Arnie to find and buy a toy in time for Christmas day. The movie is based at Christmas and is of course a festive movie, but the emphasis is more on the action figure than Christmas itself.It has all the clichés of a holiday movie with plenty of slap stick humour and predictability as you would expect! Personally I thought that it started well and I was more entertained than I was expecting until around half way through. The second half started to get overly repetitive with a feel that they were struggling to fill the time with scenes. The ending was predictable but good fun nevertheless!Overall, Jingle all the Way is a relatively fun festive movie, however I feel that viewing it for the first time as an adult made it difficult for me to give a higher rating. I can certainly think of worse films to watch over the Christmas period though!5/10

Jingle All The Way is one of the most demented holiday comedies I've ever laid eyes on. It stars a yowling, hopped up Arnold Schwarzenegger as a neglectful dad stuck in a mad dash to get ahold of a special Toy for his son on Christmas Eve, plagued by all kinds of random, inane obstacles including trying to pronounce words so he doesn't sound like he's got a mouthful of eggnog in every scene. He's an odd choice to play the role, and it's almost as if Jim Carrey or Robin Williams called in sick for a month and he picked up the slack. It's stupid, it's clunky, it's beyond ridiculous.... and somehow works perfectly. Ahnuld's amps up his awkward, oblong charm and blunders around like an Austrian bull in a china shop, but sells the movie in his own unbelievable way. He's promised his kid (Anakin Skywalker) that he'll get a him a Turbo Man doll for Christmas, which just happens to be the hottest item of the season, causing quite an ordeal for him as the days goes on. He's hampered by a sleazy mall Santa (Jim Belushi), an angry reindeer, millions of rabid shoppers, his smarmy neighbour (the late Phil Hartman) and a mailman (cringeworthy Sinbad, whose picture you'll find next to both retarded and unfunny in the dictionary) who also seeks the elusive Turbo Man. The finale reaches sparing heights of unapologetic implausibility and just a hint of touching, father son bonding between the terminator and future darth vader. I dare not touch the sequel (starring Larry The stupid Cable Guy) with a ten foot North Pole. This one was a bundle of silly fun though.