Jingle All the Way (1996) Review

“Put that cookie down! Now”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

The holidays are known to drive people insane and the proof is in the pudding when watching Jingle All the Way. 


PLOT


The 1996 film follows Howard Langston who lives in Minneapolis with his wife Liz and young son Jamie. He loves his family deeply, but struggles to show it as a workaholic mattress salesman. When he misses his son’s karate class again, he vows to make it right by getting him an action figure of his favorite superhero Turbo Man. The problem is Liz had already told him to get it two weeks prior and he completely forgot. With no other choice; he goes out shopping on Christmas Eve hoping to please his son once he gets it. He’s not the only one who wants it however because a postal worker named Myron Larabee who intends to get it for his son too. In his efforts of searching all over town, store after store, he almost caved in buying one from con artists but that leads to a big fight at their warehouse. Luckily, he does avoid the police when they raid the place shortly after the altercation. At the brink of giving up, he considers to tell the truth to Liz when calling her but Jamie answers instead. When he keeps reminding him of his promise to come to the annual Winter-tainment Parade, Howard loses his patience and yells at him. When trying to apologize, Jamie hangs up after calling him out for constantly failing to keep past promises. Howard and Myron then fight for a competition over the action figure heard on the radio, only for them to find out it was a gift certificate by the time they reach the station. The police show up again and almost apprehended them until Myron hoaxes them into thinking one of his packages has a bomb. That gives both dads enough time to flee, only for them to find out the bomb was real as it goes off once unwrapped by Officer Hummel. When coming home with the assist of a tow truck, Howard reaches his breaking point seeing his neighbor Ted put the Christmas star in his tree. He intends to retaliate by stealing the Turbo Man he bought for his son Johnny months in advance and almost goes through with it, but his second thoughts leads to him being caught in the act by him and Liz. Embarrassed, he goes separately with the family to the parade. As Ted drops off Liz with the kids, he tries to seduce her like he had done with past wives in the neighborhood, but she rejects him. When Howard reaches the parade, he gets chased again by Hummell that he hides in a storage room and is mistaken to be a Turbo Man actor assigned to be part of the parade. He almost gives a special edition action figure to his son when he spots him in the crowd, but he gets stopped by Myron dressed as the fictional antagonist Dementor. Within a lengthy chase, the latter gets cornered by the cops. When the commotion stops, the public praises especially after he unmasks himself and apologizes to his family for his shortcomings. Jamie then makes a bold decision in giving the acting figure to Myron, accepting that his dad’s performance was the best gift he can get. The film then ends in a post credit cliffhanger with Howard realizing he didn’t get anything for Liz either.


THOUGHTS


There have been various holiday flicks with all kinds of hijinks for the sake of achieving the spirit. With that being said, this has to be the most relatable one of the 20th century because parents all around the world will do their best in pleasing their kids however so and commonly, consumerism with toys is what pleases kids most come Christmas. Director Brian Levant does a great job in expressing relatable insanity that it becomes hilarious to look back on. If you're a parent and say you never got into a fight over a toy like many did for Cabbage Patch Kids, I would have a hard time believing it especially since there have been many fights on Black Friday shopping. What makes this funny is how over the top the adventure gets and that you could believe it'll happen to you. I mean I can imagine fighting one mall Santa, but not an army at a warehouse which is where I can't help to laugh. And you gotta double down accepting the unrealism when Sinbad & Arnold Schwarzenegger are at war with one another. Considering how both of their characters Myron and Howard are workaholic dads who share the desperation of pleasing their sons, you want to root for them both until you see they may go too far in achieving a personal goal. Whoever you side with, you can say the other is the villain but at the end of the day, they catch on that materialism is not what defines the bond a parent has with a kid but only the unconditional love. And yeah, I can agree they wouldn't have such stress overnight had online shopping been a thing. You can say Myron takes it farthest because he was willing to chase Jamie for the toy and played off the stressed out stereotype of a postman that he pretended to have a bomb until a real one unintentionally went off. He's lucky Hummell didn't die in cartoon fashion. Howard still makes his own mistake in almost stealing from the kid of his rivaled neighbor. I mean I'd hate Ted too due to how Phil Hartman revs it up in being an annoying creep at every given opportunity, but he was right to stop himself because stooping so low wouldn't make him better at all. The irony is that it took a reindeer for him to get caught. I can have a big smile that he got to be a real life hero to his son and I too would be stunned that he got the point of the whole movie to not ever take shortcuts to show affection. I refuse to hate on Jake Lloyd as a child actor because no one is gonna be perfect at their job no matter the age group. With that being said, he owns it in being one that is hoping for his dad to give said affection. The fact his dad became a hero in his very eyes defends why he gave up the toy to Myron and moves forward to have a better relationship with Howard. Last but not least, Rita Wilson is also great as Liz. She may not get to do much because she is under the know of what Howard puts himself through. She's the best of both worlds of being a good mom and wife because while she know her husband works hard to have a roof over their heads, it doesn't excuse his past times lacking effort which she makes time to explain. And just because she's annoyed of this aspect, does not mean she'll give up on him hence rightfully rejecting Ted. I do hope she was kidding on expecting a Christmas gift too because she knows damn well his workaholic ass was gonna forget. Having given all the credit I can with the message this movie is going for, there are still are other things that don’t age well. From the top, it feels dumb for one housewife to give Ted cookies as thanks for fixing the springdoor, hinting the affair they had. My problem with it is she could’ve given him the cookies after their ceremony rather than hold them the whole time. And since Liz knows how forgetful Howard is, I’m surprised she didn’t get the toy herself. There’s even no point for Ted to tell him he got the toy in advance unlike him because that was asking for him to be robbed. Heck, there shouldn’t even be displays if they sold out of the toy line. What can be dumber than Howard not seeing Ted on the roof is telling Liz he got a speeding ticket when he actually got a ticket for taking the shoulder. Also, I’m surprised Howard didn’t even consider taking the display for backup if he couldn’t get the toy. I mean since Jamie loves superheroes as his bedroom shows, it’s a no brainer he’d dig it. Heck, it’s even ridiculous that the mall Santa played by Jim Belushi doesn’t tell him the price of the ripoff idoll during the drive to the warehouse. Its also on both Howard & Myron to think the toy would be at the radio station when all they need is to get the answer right. And if one of them did, they’d guarantee getting it before Christmas Day. It then gets too ridiculous that Ted ignores the destruction of his home just to drive Liz to the parade hoping to score. Like dude, you got a reindeer in the house to worry about. On top of that, how the hell does Liz not freak out Howard dressed as Turbo Man calls Jamie by his name, nor does she run for Jamie when he gets chased by Myron? That’s more absurd than both dads mastering the props from their costumes they never even trained for in advance. Other than that however, Jingle All the Way is an underrated holiday flick for being mostly fun in getting its message across. You want to remain in the spirit? This one will do it for you.