25 Days of Christmas: Day Eight

Jingle All The Way (1996)

"It's Turbo time!" - Turbo Man












I know it's not a great movie but I like it and eventually see it at some point in the Christmas season. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a dad who has to head out into the dangerous world of last minute toy shopping to score his kid the most wanted action figure on the market that year... a Turbo Man.

Not only does he have to deal with the mass of other parents racing from toy store to toy store, fighting in the aisles, and double crossing each other... but he seems to have picked up a nemesis in the form of Sinbad who is playing a mail man down on his luck and searching for the same toy. The result is a chase through the city and into the underground toy selling market itself. Eventually we end up at a version of the Macy's parade and Arnold actually gets to become Turbo Man on a massive float and do battle with the evil... Sinbad?

The story, for me, is pretty fun as I have been one of those people out there running around town looking for that special something that will make the holiday for someone you love. I have fought with other shoppers and even hidden away certain items so that I can return to them later if a better price hasn't been found. I've even made the call to friends that have sounded like this...

"Dude... are you still looking for the rare Superman figure with the black "S" on the cape instead of the yellow one? Sweet... you need to head down to Target and go to the linen department. In the second aisle with the pillows you will find an ugly orange shag throw pillow three shelves up in the middle. Yeah... ok... behind that pillow is a plastic divider with the screws taken out. Behind that is the figure. Sweet."

So... yeah. I can relate.

There is the usual plot device of Arnold having disappointed his kid a couple times in the beginning of the movie so getting the toy is the one thing he thinks will make up for all the times he screwed up with the kid. A side plot is that his next door neighbor, played sleazily by the late Phil Hartman, is trying to move in on his wife during this whole thing. I really enjoy the fun had with this flick. It doesn't take itself seriously and neither do I.

The cast works pretty well and the direction is as good as you're going to get in a movie like this. The future Anakin Skywalker plays Arnold's kid and he's just as dopey in this as you would expect him to be. We don't really care though as it's all about Arnold and Sinbad falling into one mess after another.

In the end the father comes out on top, the jerk neighbor gets his due, and the world is once again safe thanks to the heroics of Turbo Man.