Every year without fail, somehow I (and probably most people) manage to summon the enthusiasm to watch a bunch of Christmas film classics — Whether it’s the routine, nostalgia or weariness I don’t think I’ll ever determine why I’m able to enjoy them year after year.
Jingle All The Way is more often than not one of the first of these masterpieces to be endured. It’s a film about two guilt-wrecked fathers (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad) racing around Minneapolis on Christmas Eve to buy their kids the latest craze Toy, and if you haven’t seen it then where the heck have you been for the last twenty years?
Watching it this year got me thinking that this film is so typical of the 90s it wouldn’t have made sense in any other decade. A few years too early and Turboman would have been Mr Frosty, possibly causing copyright issues with the Ghostbusters Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and challenges later on for Arny in his audition for Mr Freeze in Batman and Robin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkTHtWX7CCY
Try to move the release of this film forward, and the advances in technology give Arnold no reason to miss getting his kid the damn doll. In the past 20 years, the widespread use of the internet and email, online shopping and even One-hour delivery reduces the film to nothing more than a 3 hour Google search, and possibly a trip to a local store to collect a parcel. Retailers also know a lot more about their customers nowadays; therefore stock should rarely be an issue for this type of product.
What other films can you think of, that are so harmonious with their time of release, a remake/reboot/revival just wouldn’t work?