Jingle All the Way (1996) Movie Review

 Hey everyone! Happy Friday, maybe, if you're not caught in a winter storm. I'm here to do my Christmas movie review for 2022, and this year I'm reviewing Jingle All the Way, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad, along with Jake Lloyd. I don't know if I'm actually going to have a whole lot to say about this movie, just because I watched it for the first time last night so I don't have any childhood memories of this movie, beyond seeing the commercial for it on TV, and I have no nostalgic feelings towards this movie. I understand that some of you do. So with that out of the way, let's get into this movie.

Jingle All the Way is one of those movies that you had to have grown up with watching, and been a certain age when it originally came out back in 1996 to get any sort of appreciation for it. I wouldn't say that the movie is bad, it's just of its time but not really in a good way. While I watched the movie, I kept trying to find that one thing about it that makes people love it even after 26 years. But everytime it seemed like I had found it, the thing would be ruined by an unnecessary joke or some ridiculous part would happen and it kept me from being invested in anything going on. And it could've been a movie I should've been heavily invested in because trying to find the Christmas present you want for a particular person, especially so close to Christmas Day and not being able to get it is something I think we've all been through before. Especially if you're a parent. 

I'm not a big Schwarzenegger fan so I haven't seen a whole lot of his movies. But he was usually pretty good in the movies I have seen him in, except for this movie. There was just something about his character in this film that made it really difficult to feel any sort of sympathy for. Even when he had the worst luck. Sinbad, an actor I've heard of, but have never seen in anything, wasn't any better. In fact, the only main cast member I thought was any good, was Jake Lloyd. Despite him being younger than he was when he played Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), he was actually better in the movie for how little he was actually in the movie for. And the rest of the cast was fine. Nothing spectacular. Apart from Martin Mull of course. And this movie came out a year before Mull would first appear as Vice Principal Kraft on Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996-2003)

I wish this movie had just been about Turboman because that would've been way more interesting. And I don't mean that in a Toy Story kind of way either. I actually mean that the movie should've been Turboman with Schwarzenegger playing the character. Sure, it would've been just as cheesy as any comic book superhero based movie that came out in the mid to late '90s, but it would've been more fun to watch. The Mall Santa crime ring was a funny sequence, but that's only because Jim Belushi is in it.

Overall Jingle All the Way had the potential to be an amazing movie. Instead it was just what it was. Ridiculous and weird. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's just not for me. Like I said, it's one of those movies where you had to be a certain age when it first came out to really enjoy it. I'm not even sure if I would've enjoyed it when it came out back in 1996. I don't actually remember being interested in it whenever I saw the commercials for it on TV. Which says something as to why I never saw it when I was a kid.

Anyways my friends that's going to be it for me for this week. I'm going to wait to watch and review Strange World until after the New Year because, except for season 1 Star Trek: Prodigy, which ends next week, I wanna have some time off for the holidays. So join me next week for my review of season 1 of Prodigy. Until then Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and I will talk to you all later. Take care.