Date: Fri 24-Jan-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DONNAM

Illustration: C

Location: A10

Quick Words:

Jingle-Schwarzenegger-Playing

Full Text:

(rev "Jingle All The Way" for Now Playing, 1/24/97)

Now Playing-

A Late-In-The-Season Holiday Lark

By Trey Paul Alexander III

The scene is Christmas time, and the concentrated voices of thousands of

children cry out in a chorus of "I want it!" that rings incessantly in the

ears of parents everywhere. You know what I'm talking about, the "it" item of

the moment; the one thing that indisputably corrals the spotlight of our

collective consciousness; the season's most sought-after toy for which moms

and dads drive themselves into a feverish frenzy with their dogged pursuit. Am

I talking about Cabbage Patch Dolls? Power Ranger action figures? Actually,

the toy in question is Turbo Man, a sleek hero based on a fad TV show for

kids, and the object of parent Howard Langston's (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

Christmas Eve quest in Jingle All the Way , playing at the Edmond Town Hall

theater this week.

The real-life Tickle Me Elmo rage of `96 adds a bit more twisted poignance to

this light, but affable comedy. Particularly amusing is an early scene in

which a cutthroat mob of salivating shoppers tries to overcome one another for

a chance at buying one of the highly hunted figures - all to the tune of

Johnny Mathis' bouncy rendition of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"

roaring across the soundtrack with ironic glee. The sequence is a blast to

watch, in and of itself, but heaped upon it is the hilarious memory of the

authentic craze that descended upon the country for that fuzzy little Elmo.

We'll not soon forget the display of "gotta have it" that was revealed during

our Elmo haze in which radio DJs auctioned off the dolls and jewelry stores

offered free Elmos - with a $1,000+ purchase! Is this life imitating art or

art imitating life (or just an intriguing coincidence)?

Jingle All the Way , directed by Brian Levant ( The Flintstones and Beethoven

) , seeks to capture the lengths to which a desperate parent will go to please

a pleading child. In the case of this film, Langston, a workaholic mattress

salesman who spends too little time with his tyke, Jamie (Jake Lloyd), is not

only trying to appease his son, but is trying to make retribution for all of

Jamie's karate matches he has missed over the year. Thus, when Jamie tells him

Turbo Man is the single most important item on his wish list, and his wife,

Liz (Rita Wilson), thinking he has already procured the toy, proclaims how

glad she is that he remembered to get it, "because it would be almost

impossible to get one now," Langston is propelled into a secretive, impossible

Christmas Eve mission to purchase Turbo Man.

Langston runs into a bevy of obstacles on his journey, the greatest of which

is a persistent, slightly imbalanced postal worker named Myron (Sinbad), but

also includes a shady Santa (James Belushi), a smarmy neighbor (Phil Hartman),

and a square-jawed cop (Robert Conrad, in a clever casting coup that pits the

tough, former Eveready pitchman, who dared America to knock the battery off

his shoulder, against a cowering Arnold).

Though Jingle All the Way will satisfy Home Alone fans with its over-the-top

slapstick antics and physical comedy, the film fails to always avail itself of

the fact it's got Schwarzenegger in the starring role. Most of Arnie's

comedies have played off his muscle-bound image and used it as grist for the

humor mill, but this one, though the richer for his bigger-than-life presence,

arguably could have had any actor in the part and still come up with

comparable results.

Nevertheless, Jingle All the Way , rated PG for slapstick violence, several

innuendoes and some profanity, rates as an entertaining holiday lark. Oh, and

just one word of warning for those of you who are quick to hit the exits at

the end of a movie: There's a funny little sequence that appears at the end of

the film's credits.