Pop Culture Movies and More: Jingle All the Way (1996)

Howard Langston, a mattress salesman, is constantly busy at his job, and he also constantly disappoints his son, Jamie. After he misses Jamie's karate exposition, he tries hard to come up with a way to make it up to him. Jamie says that all he wants for Christmas is a Turbo Man action figure, the most popular toy ever. Unfortunately for Howard, it is Christmas Eve, and every store is sold out. Now Howard must travel all over town and compete with everybody else, including a mailman named Myron Larabee, to find one and make it to the Holiday Wintertainment Parade, which will feature Turbo Man. Jingle All the Way is an underrated Christmas classic. It is a silly hilarious adventure that is a load of fun. One of the best choices for this film was having the leading role played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. It is unlike most of his other movies where he is an action-man soldier, etc due to his muscular physiques, like in Commando (1985), Predator (1987) and The Terminator (1984). So with him playing the role of an ordinary typical father made it all the funnier (well at least to me it did). He is so funny in this film with all the crazy and wacky situations he gets himself into just to try and secure this action figure. With each attempt, things just keep getting worse and even wilder. He is constantly getting on the wrong side of the same policeman for different reasons and has an all-out battle against a crazy postal worker: Myron. He even has to put up with his slimy neighbour trying to hit on his wife. Howard and Myron have such a great rivalry from one minute being friends to then turning on the other to then going back and forth throughout. They both go to such lengths to get a Turbo Man by attacking one another, fighting off other shoppers and even evading armed police. We follow Howard to other strange locations on the search like a shop full of conmen Santas who try selling a broken Turbo Man, which results in a brilliant fight. Seeing Arnold battle against ninja Santas and giant muscly Santas, only using a giant candy cane is just superb and utterly entertaining. But that's not all, he would go on to break into a Radio Station, in an attempt to win a radio quiz for a Turbo Man and break into his horrible neighbour's house, so to steal his but accidentally sets the Christmas decorations on fire. He even punches an angry reindeer charging him down. Such a persistent Dad! This all leads to the climactic finale where Howard is still yet to obtain this elusive toy and whilst escaping the same policeman, once again, he manages to get tied up in becoming part of one of the floats at the Wintertainment Parade. Funnily enough, he gets made Turbo Man, where he begins waving to all the adoring fans. Later he gets the chance to salute his son, making him extremely happy but of course, he doesn't yet know it is his father. It's an especially heartwarming scene when Howard is given a Turbo Man, which makes him very emotional and he ends up giving it to Jamie. I love film just for how silly it can be without having to convey any lesson or special meaning to learn from it is simply some good old traditional fun for the holidays. Also, who could forget the iconic line that so many of us quote from Arnold thanks to this movie? "Put the cookie down, NOW!" Overall, I enjoy this comedic entertainment that keeps the laughs coming right up to the end credits, where there is a great extra scene. I bring out this forgotten gem each year, it's certainly one not to miss out on this Christmas.