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I actually enjoyed it. A guilty pleasure!

After the strong negative criticism that Jingle All The Way had, I was considering just giving it a miss but when it was Christmas, I changed my mind and decided to at least give it a go (which is something that I always do with almost every film). So, I would say it is a film that I just decided to watch for curious purposes and, quite frankly, I actually enjoyed it. Yes, I enjoyed it. Admittedly, I am a sucker for entertainment but what I really spotted with Jingle All The Way was its incredibly fun side but also its laughably awful side at the same time so I would say it isn't a bad film and it isn't a good film either.


Understandably, most people only watch Christmas films around the Christmas season because it doesn't feel the same when watching one like in the middle of the summer or spring and that doesn't always work with me and can watch Christmas films in the summer despite I love Christmas. However, with Jingle All The Way; it is a film that I would only watch at least once every year when it is near to Christmas to brighten up my Christmas spirit and giving me 80-90 of pure entertainment. Throughout most of the film, I just went 'no, no, no!' in a rather shameful way but others I just chuckled in a 'What the f***?' sort of way. The dialogue is hilarious but daft.


Howard Langston, a salesman for a mattress company is constantly busy at his job, and he also constantly disappoints his son, after he misses his son's karate exposition, he tries hard to come up with a way to make it up to him, this is when his son tells Howard that he wants for Christmas is an action figure of his son's television hero, Turbo Man. Unfortunately for Howard, it is Christmas Eve, and every store is sold out of Turbo Man figures, now Howard must travel all over town and compete with everybody else including a mail man named Myron to find a Turbo Man action figure, and to make it to the Wintertainment parade which will feature Turbo Man.


Arnold Schwarzenegger, surely you must have been stoned in front of the casting director to agree to sign up for this one! I mean, I did like Arnie in this film on occasions butโ€ฆ it is ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER! This is the guy who plays the Terminator, was the leading actor in Predator and has starred in other brutal action films who is like an action rival against Sylvester Stallone. I mean, seeing Arnie play a soft, gentle and emotional character was just weird to see and the fact that he kept getting beaten by other characters both emotionally and physically is just beyond belief! I mean, doing all that for a poxy toy! Come on! I think everybody probably noticed this: the young boy who plays Arnie's son Jake Lloyd played Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode I โ€“ The Phantom Menace. His performance wasn't that bad despite he was only 7 years old at the time and after watching Jingle All The Way, I have absolutely no idea what George Lucas liked and what led Jake to play such a powerful and crucial character like Anakin Skywalker. So I guess you could say that Jingle All The Way has a bit of Terminator and a bit of Star Wars part of it.


I am sorry but I have to admit that the direction was just atrocious! It was rather cheesy and there weren't any unique camera angles. Also, a lot of the chase and some fight scenes were quite rushed and also I think that the way he handled the scenes in the house such as the lighting and other bits was weak as well. I noticed quite a lot of bloopers as well so that is another major weakness. The script was cheesy! I mean, the dialogue in general is daft enough but the screenplay is just laughably awful but in a funny and humorous way which was in a way, a good thing for a film like this with a daft story.


Overall, Jingle All The Way is a Christmas film that is neither good nor bad. I shockingly and surprisingly enjoyed it despite the many flaws that it has. It probably is worth watching at least once a year around the Christmas season but it is one of my biggest guilty pleasures. If they're gonna cast Arnie in this one, they might as well cast Sylvester Stallone in a sequel to this which will be mad! Arnie you can do so much better and there are many Christmas films that are so much better than this. Still a fun film, nothing more.
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Added by SJMJ91
13 years ago on 30 December 2010 17:57

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