Jingle All the Way
Published December 9, 2020
Film info
- Title Jingle All the Way
- Director Brian Levant
- Year 1996
- Run time 1hr 29m
- Genres Comedy, Family, Adventure
- Tagline Two dads, one toy, no prisoners
High powered businessman Howard Langston is hard at work taking last-minute orders from customers to whom he just can't say no, including his son, Jamie, who asked for the hottest action figure of the season - Turbo Man! Unfortunately, Howard is facing one BIG problem. It's Christmas Eve and Turbo Man has been sold out since Thanksgiving! Howard's down-to-the-wire trek to find Turbo Man quickly turns into an odyssey wilder than he could have ever imagined.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 1:40 | Turboman has a boomerang as a weapon? |
| 4:13 | “You’re my number one customer!” Divorce. |
| 7:19 | Ooh, karate rage. He needs to reign that in or he might turn to the dark side. |
| 11:19 | “Purple was really important to me.” Me too. |
| 14:18 | He’s a TERRIBLE liar. |
| 18:18 | I feel like they’re all hating on this guy but he is speaking the truth. |
| 23:06 | Ted is Troy McClure and it is messing with my mind. |
| 24:54 | “PUT THAT COOKIE DOWN. NOW.” Hehehe. |
| 30:54 | Uh oh, ball in a ball pool. |
| 35:48 | “It’s fun and educational.” What every kid wants. |
| 43:27 | Why does he think he only gets one day a year to prove himself? There’s 365 days in a year, surely. |
| 54:54 | The toy saying ‘it’s Turbo Time’ when shaken is silly, give it away when the kid inevitably shakes it. |
| 58:26 | You can’t punch a reindeer. Who punches a reindeer? |
| 1:04:18 | Yeah, go Liz! |
| 1:10:45 | HA! He was about to say I’m Your Father. That’s amazing. |
| 1:13:16 | “Get out of the way box.” |
| 1:17:-00 | Turborang is a terrible name for a weapon. |
| 1:18:42 | How can they not recognise their dad? He’s not even hiding his accent or anything. |
| 1:20:19 | “I’m sorry about the bike and the coffee and the bus and the bomb.” Dude has had a hell of a day. |
Thoughts
This was better than I thought it was going to be. The concept isn’t exactly a new one - parent going crazy trying to find a toy that is completely out of reach - but it’s good. The adventure he goes on has some wacky moments and you have to suspend your disbelief a bit, but I think up to the point of the parade, it’s pretty good.
Then things go completely bonkers - not least because the family don’t recognise him even though Arnie is huge and has quite a distinctive accent… I wasn’t buying them as a family anyway, the chemistry was way off, and then they didn’t recognise him through an almost clear visor? Shenanigans!
Entertaining, better than I’d expected, but not the best.
Rating: 2 / 5