Jingle All the Way is one of my favorite Christmas movies and I was surprised to see that some people actually hated the movie. To me it encompassed everything that made the chaotic christmas season and trying to get the toy of the year. I don’t even know how it resonated that much with me counting I first saw it as a little kid who had no idea what any of that meant Arnold schwarzenegger and Jake Lloyd made a great cast in the search for Turbo Man. Add crazy shenanigans like bootlegger Santa thugs, power ranger battles, 90s store shelves with a parade and all that gets you is a solid christmas movie. A sequel? Yes please.
As I’ve mentioned before I really wanted not only a Turbo Man doll, but also a full on show based on him as a kid. I always hated these fake shows in movies and tv shows that I always wanted them to be real even if they were clearly a parody like Reptar. I don’t know what more I can add about the original since it’s completely a perfect movie and likely my favorite Xmas film of all time. The zanyness can really be felt and the movie shines because of it. I honstly cannot tell how anyone would think of this as a bad movie. It ticks all the necessary aspects to bring you joy while watching it. Christmas music galore.
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They make a sequel to one of the Xmas greats almost two decades later. Entirely new cast with no relation to the original movie except for the premise. It’s also headed by WWE Studios, yes the wrestling company and Larry the Cable Guy is the main character in this direct to video movie. This had red flags all over it but my devotion the the original promised christmas gift movie was too much for me to ignore this movie for too long. And what can I say, the movie went a totally different direction from what it should’ve and somehow doesn’t disappoint. A Christmas classic this is not but perhaps well worth a view one christmas.
Jingle all the way 2
I can’t say I enjoy the humor of Larry the Cable Guy or ever did, it’s just something not for me and his schtick is definitely in display here. I do think they kind of tone it down a bit for general audiences and that’s for the better a it’s the right amount of hillbilly and redneck humor that I could tolerate. I mean the movie as a whole looked awful but slowly it won me over. This being a WWE movie meant we’d see some of their wrestlers here and we have Santino Marella who is a funny guy, sadly his role here doesn’t let him shine in his comedic style. I’m not sure what World Wrestling Entertainment’s strategy to get into movies and cartoons with their superstars was in the longterm. They clearly invested and wanted them to transcend the WWE Universe like The Rock but I don’t know if they thought with movies like this they would be able to.
The movie deals with a divorce plot and it works, I expected the movie to be fodder since it did not look funny but it does hit the feels and in some ways better than the original movie. Surprised how well they did it. Now the movie is not as funny as the original, but who doesn’t hate someone trying to buy affection. Is this a face-heel psychology in a movie? Why would I care about a redneck? Well I ended up doing it. Watching this now is great to see a toystore in the style of the 2000s. Toy Traders in the style of the 2000s toystores. We see some ebay scalpers, more relevant now than ever as we enjoy the store shelves of that decade.
Some things don’t make exact sense like the rival’s goon buying all those stores worth of bears, but suspension of disbelief was also in the first movie The plot doesn’t make much sense and it’s not as fun as the first one but I don’t think anyone was expecting that. I just wanted a copy of the original and this didn’t deliver that, it tried something else but somehow doesn’t fail at it. I do think the scalper plot could’ve been done far better and the movie needed far more comedy. I’m not even sure why it’s even a sequel, besides just buying the rights for name recognition I think they could’ve done more with having the rights. I mean why not use Turbo Man in at least a cameo in the background or even mentioning that the bear is a otter toy than turbo man in the 90s. Hell perhaps even a backstory of how Larry never got a turbo man doll as a kid
Overall the movie is not great, it’s ok, better than what I expected or it had any right to be or looked. Santino overacts but in some cases but man I think he had talent. Larry had heart but the slapstick was too much. I think Santino and him got reversed roles. Harrison the talking bear is a cool toy on its own. The movie has a nice message and yeah it’s a kids movie so of course it’s ok with the tone. Nice Xmas message. We needed less Victor the step dad, this is less cynical and has more heart than the original. So yeah a decent sequel. So with both movies it’s a nice movie duology.