What’s a “good-bad” movie? It’s the kind of flick that might have you cackling, hollering or groaning, one that is not necessarily great cinema but is great fun. It’s highly watchable even though — or maybe because — it’s memorably ridiculous. And it always has at least one element that pushes it into absurd territory.
Never has the skewering of American consumerism onscreen been so slapstick, so chaotic or involved a den of sleazy Santas flipping through a dirty magazine called “Myschief.” But “Jingle All the Way” — the 1996 family action comedy starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sinbad, Rita Wilson and Phil Hartman — isn’t most movies.
From the director Brian Levant (“Beethoven” and “The Flintstones”), “Jingle” tells the frenetic tale of two overworked dads — Howard (Schwarzenegger), a salesman, and Myron (Sinbad), a postal worker — as they careen through the Twin Cities on Christmas Eve trying to secure a much-coveted Turbo Man action figure for their respective sons. Full-blown meltdowns ensue.
The story was inspired by what is now referred to as the Cabbage Patch riots of 1983, a toy craze where supply fell far short of demand, driving shoppers to violence. Here, punches are thrown, children are chased, homes are set ablaze and bombs are exploded — but it’s funny!
Here are some reasons “Jingle,” which was a critical flop but a box office success, has since become a Christmas classic.
What Makes It Good?
It’s Turbo-Time Indeed
In 2019, Schwarzenegger called “Jingle” “one of those great scripts that was offered to me,” adding, “I thought the world of it.”
At face value, that might sound silly, but he’s not wrong. The movie’s greatest strengths are that it never loses sight of its straightforward plot and that it never lets up. It pushes the cartoonish violence to the brink, packing in a considerable amount of special and practical effects — the climatic, carnivalesque parade scene is top tier — all while following the story through to a solid conclusion in a tight 89 minutes.
It also gives breathing room for its four leads, who all have different comedic strengths, to shine. Sinbad and Phil Hartman, the good-guy neighbor with a bad-guy underbelly who’s trying to creep on Howard’s wife, Liz (Wilson), both deliver scene-stealing performances that ultimately elevate this movie.
And the frenemy buddy-comedy energy between Schwarzenegger and Sinbad — who did some of their own stunts simply because they were having so much fun filming, as Sinbad shared in 2017 — feels authentic. Not to mention Jake Lloyd as Howard and Liz’s son, Jamie, who pulls all the right heartstrings without being saccharine.
All the while, “Jingle” delivers a highly irreverent riff on themes of parental guilt, capitalism, advertising and greed.
What Makes It Bad?
Daddy Issues
It’s not long into “Jingle” when Howard’s hapless husband and absent dad shtick grows thin. It makes it pretty hard to cheer him on, even though that seems to be the expectation.
He lies almost pathologically to his family and breaks every promise made. And every opportunity he has to do right by his son (and he has many), he chooses the opposite.
The problem? We’re supposed to think it’s charming. He’s supposed to be the hero anyway, and in the end, he is in a big way — winning the adoration of his wife, his son and his city despite falling unwittingly into redemption, having learned nothing.
What Makes It Good-Bad?
Peak ’90s Energy
At some point between the Santa free-for-all fracas, complete with candy-cane nunchucks, and Howard punching an animatronic reindeer in the face, it becomes hard not to wonder what might be the most ’90s thing about “Jingle All the Way.”
Maybe it’s the abundance of electronic gadgets and gizmos that seem to hearken the looming internet age. Or the fashion: say Howard’s camel cashmere coat or the golden banana hammock sported by Booster, Turbo Man’s catlike sidekick. Or the importance of pay phones. Or the mall ball pit. Or the jokes that have aged poorly.
Ultimately, the most undeniably ’90s aspect of “Jingle” might just be that it’s almost impossible to tell that this is a family movie at all. With Hartman’s significant contribution and cameos from other “S.N.L.” cast members past and future, including Jim Belushi, Laraine Newman and Chris Parnell, “Jingle” increasingly leans hard toward offbeat adult humor more than anything peddled to kids today. And in that liminal space is its best stunt: that for those allowed to watch it growing up, it just kinda-sorta grows up, too.
Maya Salam is an editor and reporter, focusing primarily on pop culture across genres.
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