Quick Thoughts - Jingle All the Way (1996)

12/12/13: Having somehow missed this film when I was its target audience almost twenty years ago, I've always had a strange desire to see it. Boy, what a let-down. Failing to be entertaining on even a level of out-dated charm, Jingle All the Way is a complete bust. Telling the story of a crappy father trying to find an elusive toy to make up for not being there for his kid, the film shoots for the heartwarming sentimentality of the Christmas season through its very inverse, bringing us boring characters in search of superficial fulfillment. In its attempt to lampoon the annual "hot toy" craze, Jingle All the Way only celebrates it, making it tacky, though to its credit it at least creates a fictional toy rather than serve as a ninety-minute advertisement for an existing product. *1/2

Secretly Awesome - The Cable Guy

Release Date: June 14, 1996

Director: Ben Stiller

Writer: Lou Holtz Jr.

Cast: Jim Carrey, Matthew Broderick, Leslie Mann, Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Andy Dick, Janeane Garofalo, George Segal, Bob Odenkirk, David Cross

Box Office: $60,240,295

Rotten Tomatoes: 54%

The Cable Guy is the black sheep of the early Jim Carrey filmography, failing to meet expectations set by his earlier work, like The Mask and the Ace Ventura films. I don't know how recently you've seen any of those films, but some of them really don't hold up very well, while The Cable Guy just gets better with age. Between Carrey's over-the-top neediness, the film's darkly bizarre silliness, or simply images like Carrey rubbing the spot on Matthew Broderick's wall where he'll install the cable like it's a nipple, I honestly don't know what's not to love about it.

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