Jingle All the Way is an infamous catastrophe. Its centerpiece blunder is the miscast Schwarzenegger. Arnold is not a skilled actor, but he excelled in roles consisting of few expressions that highlighted his physique. Jingle All the Way does the opposite, placing Arnold as an everyman whose relatable family struggles drive the film. Meanwhile, Jingle All the Way is a vapid and cliched story. It takes the tired trope of the workaholic father and magically resolves it without any justification. Even a corny resolution would have been better, but Arnold's character never actually makes things right with his neglected son.
From a filmmaking perspective, Jingle All the Way is generic and careless. There are a couple of interesting shots and an adequately edited montage, but everything else is manufactured with apathetic indifference. The production design is cheap, the effects are pathetic, and the ADR dialogue is sloppy. Plus, the Christmas music is arbitrarily slapped on. Overall, the direction is to blame because the tone is erratic, the style is void, and everything falls flat. Clearly, no technical passion was present here. In the end, Jingle All the Way is an unusually pitiful disaster but not worth sitting through.
Writing: 2/10
Direction: 1/10
Cinematography: 4/10
Acting: 2/10
Editing: 4/10
Sound: 3/10
Score/Soundtrack: 4/10
Production Design: 3/10
Casting: 3/10
Effects: 2/10
Overall Score: 2.8/10
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