Jingle All the Way

A film that argues against the false hopes brought on by the commercialism of the holidays and then plays its climax, set in a Christmas parade, completely straight. This is a work in dire need of a focused rewrite. The hypocrisy isn’t the worst part of the film, though—that dishonor goes for what passes as comedy, such as Ahnold threatening little kids and Sinbad complaining about alimony. A handful of jokes do land, and most of them can be attributed to Phil Hartman being awesome. I have no idea why this directionless farce stays in the holiday film rotation.

3