As December chugs along, movie fans are getting into the Christmas spirit, with many now turning to a particular festive action comedy led by a particular Austrian Oak for their merriment hit. That’s right, Arnold Schwarzenegger
’s holiday favorite Jingle All the Way
has now broken into the 
Prime Video
top 10, with the movie bringing together families from across the globe in a way that only a Schwarzenegger movie can. After all, who doesn’t remember cozying up under a blanket with your nearest and dearest to watch the Terminator’s red eye fade out at the end of James Cameron’s sci-fi –action classic?
Jingle All the Way, of course, finds Schwarzenegger starring alongside the comedian Sinbad as two rival fathers who find themselves facing off while desperately trying to purchase a Turbo-Man action figure for their respective sons on a last-minute shopping spree on Christmas Eve. As of this weekend, Jingle All the Way finds itself at #4 in the Prime Video top 10. Check out the official synopsis for the family comedy below.
“Workaholic Howard Langston (Arnold Schwarzenegger) wants to make things up to his son, Jamie (Jake Lloyd), and wife, Liz (Rita Wilson). He promises to get Jamie the hottest toy of the season, Turbo-Man — even though it’s Christmas Eve and the toy is practically sold out. As Langston hunts down the elusive gift, he runs into mailman Myron (Sinbad), another father on the same quest. With the clock winding down, Langston’s moral code is tested as he starts to learn the real meaning of Christmas.”
Where’s the Christmas Spirit? ‘Jingle All the Way’ Was Savaged by Critics Upon Release
Directed by Brian Levant and written by Randy Kornfield, and starring Rita Wilson, Jake Lloyd, and the late, great Phil Hartman alongside Schwarzenegger and Sinbad, Jingle All the Way has since become a holiday favorite thanks to high-paced plot, endlessly quotable lines (surely, we’ve all yelled at someone to “put that cookie down!”), and the charismatic duo of Schwarzenegger and Sinbad.
Fans of the movie, Schwarzenegger, and Christmas itself will no doubt be shocked to the core to learn that Jingle All the Way received negative reviews from critics upon release. Of course, it has since become something of a festive staple for families everywhere, alongside the likes of Home Alone, It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, and more, who cannot wait to sit down and watch Arnie and Sinbad battle it out in their search for the elusive Turbo-Man.
Related
James Cameron Explains Why Arnold Schwarzenegger Originally Hated One of His Best Movies
The iconic actor was happy to return to his role at the Terminator in James Cameron’s Terminator 2 – or at least he was eventually.
Try not to let it crush your Christmas spirit into oblivion, but Jingle All the Way holds a score of just 20% on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, with the critics’ consensus declaring, “Arnold Schwarzenegger tries his best, but Jingle All the Way suffers from an uneven tone, shifting wildly from a would-be satire on materialism to an antic, slapstick yuk-fest.” Have critics ever been so wrong about a movie? Without doing any kind of research, the answer is surely “no.”
- Release Date
-
November 22, 1996
- Runtime
-
89 Minutes