Jingle All the Way - Movie Review
A film jingle all the way it had to happen eventually today's the day and since a lot of you probably want to know what the rest of this shirt says i saw
jingle all the way in a theater with my mom in 1996 i was only 8 years old and i had a blast it was never really the repeating christmas themed movie for me though as a kid because i really didn't watch that many christmas movies home alone was sort of the staple jingle all the way i watched every once in a while after that but as i got older strangely i found myself enjoying the film a lot more and it's mostly because i looked at it from the lens of an adult jingle all the way is that rare family themed christmas movie that isn't really aimed at kids
it's actually aimed at adults yes somebody gets kicked in the groin it's about toys and it has power rangers references but this is actually a movie that adults are going to understand a lot more than kids arnold schwarzenegger plays a business man who never has any time for his family and his kid played by jake lloyd before he got his anakin role in phantom menace really wants a turbo man doll for christmas the problem is that turboman dolls are sold out everywhere this year this is being echoed with ps5s which i still don't have and that's okay
now his wife played by rita wilson knew that their kid wanted a turbo man doll weeks ago and she reminded him to get the goddamn thing then and he still hasn't he realizes that he has to run out on christmas eve and find one of the hardest to get items that's available because if he doesn't his kid's gonna hate him turns out sinbad is also looking for the same toy for his son and these two men wage all-out war on christmas eve to try to find the turbo man doll jingle all the way was met with pretty negative reviews upon release and home alone despite being the highest grossing movie of 1990 didn't get much better reviews actually it's only been in years recently that the film has taken its rightful status as a holiday classic
jingle all the way probably will never get there but people from my generation really like this movie and i'm one of those people and it's not just because it's fun and silly and it reminds me of a warm-hearted time in my life when there wasn't as many issues to worry about when the world seems simpler it's not just that that certainly is the icing on the top of the cake but the reason i like jingle all the way is because as an adult as someone who has now gone around and last minute try to find gifts for loved ones i kind of understand the movie now i view the movie through the lens of satire which is not something i understood as a kid and a lot of people don't really pay attention to it in the film and yeah there's absolutely elements of this movie that are slapstick heavy very corny and melodramatic but what i love about jingle all the way which is funny to say i know it's jingle all the way i don't give a i love this movie is
it's a family christmas movie that's completely honest about what family christmases tend to be like it's not always warm hugs and happy fireplace meals with warm music and santa it's generally kids who want a toy and a parent who's losing their mind trying to find it and what length someone will go to to find some people are trampled in this movie as people cram into stores trying to find these toys it's a very honest christmas movie despite arnold in a jet pack zooming around towards the end dressed up as turbo man it's a film that shows a post office worker pretend to have a bomb because he believes that inside this radio station is a turbo man doll now you can look at that as absurdist humor and laugh when the cop gets blown up real good but in reality this is a movie that is poking fun at the lengths we'll go to to please our children and keep them happy
The film's message of commercialism and greed is unmistakable i mean you have a scene where arnold is trying so hard to get this goddamn toy that he follows jim belushi as santa claus to a warehouse filled with other santa clauses who are making cheap knock-off toys to try to profit off of what children really want and he's willing to shell out 300 for what ends up being a fake turbo man broken in the package which leads to a hilarious brawl between santa elves and arnold schwarzenegger how can you not enjoy that at the same time though this movie does not give a about christmas which is really fun to watch but i like that the film is honest when's the last time you saw a christmas film that has a bunch of fake santa clauses profiting off of the hopes
dreams of children which led to some of the biggest criticisms of the film upon release if you go back and read some of the early reviews roger ebert gave it two and a half out of four stars and he enjoyed the film but he was depressed quote depressed by the rampant commercialism in the film how everyone was treating each other poorly and he wanted to feel better leaving the theater about the future generation of kids and what they wanted out of a holiday totally get that that's kind of what the film is saying sure it's funny to watch arnie crawl through a chuck e cheese discovery zone style playhouse jumping into a pit of balls and grabbing a child's face because he wants to do everything he can to get that damn doll for his kid sure all that's funny and kids will laugh at that but the movie also has booster the sidekick to turbo man that nobody likes there's booster action figures available everywhere nobody wants him even the guy dressed up as booster in the parade gets his ass kicked by a bunch of kids because nobody likes booster everybody wants the turbo man it's great it's uh it's a silly movie it is it's really not all of it holds up especially the special effects towards the end with arnold zooming around in his jet pack it's very cheesy looking and that's okay it kind of makes me laugh more and makes me nostalgic i don't give a um something else this movie has that a lot of films of the era don't especially family fair is phil hartman rest in peace as a single dad who's going around town trying to bang every woman in sight every woman in town likes the fact that he's very handy he goes around to their houses fixes stuff and he's trying to move in on rita wilson throughout the entire film when's the last time you saw a 90s villain in a kids movie who's possibly a serial predator put that cookie down now jingle all the way is a very entertaining movie for me it's fast paced all the way through i've always really enjoyed it i find it very funny i think arnold's really likable in the movie as is sinbad they play off each other very well and i like the fact that sinbad you can't really nail him down as a character there's times where he's a villain there's times where he's a friend he shifts he will punch arnold in the face to try to get to the turbo man but later he'll find him at a coffee shop or a bar and just sit down next to him and talk and so it seems strange in the moment until you realize what the film is saying is that as soon as that thing they want appears all bets are off i really like jingle all the way and i have a blast every time i watch it i'm gonna give jingle all the way a b-plus certainly nowhere near as good as other holiday classics and i understand if you don't like the film but for my money it's a movie i like to watch every december
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