Written by Kelly Younger and directed by Reginald Hudlin Prime Video’s latest Christmas comedy film stars Eddie Murphy, Tracee Ellis Ross, Jillian Bell, Thaddeus J. Mixson, Ken Marino, Nick Offerman, Robin Thede, Chris Redd, Genneya Walton, Madison Thomas, D.C. Young Fly, Riki Lindhome, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, Lombardo Boyar, Danielle Pinnock, Timothy Simons and others. The music is by Marcus Miller, and Candy Cane Lane has a runtime of 117 minutes.
– The Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
Why do Christmas movies always have to be outlandish and weird? There’s always something that is about to take away the very essence of Christmas, a person who has lost their faith in the holiday and, in the end, Christmas is saved, and the grumpy man finds the reason and meaning of life. It’s the same template in every family Christmas movie that tries to make you feel good by the end of it while presenting a very mild inconvenience at the start to give you a false sense of achievement and delivers a hope that, in the end, everything will be all right if you just conform!
Amazon Prime’s latest Christmas release, starring Eddie Murphy as Chris Carver, the token “man of the house” who finds himself in the dumps and seems to have lost the cheer of Christmas battling it out with an evil elf (once Santa’s favourite, in fact!) to win the Candy Cane Lane competition that has prize money this year, out of the blue. Interestingly, this is a real thing that happens in Pennsylvania every year, and it looks quite magical, to be honest. Chris and his young daughter Holly (Madison Thomas) go out on a quest to reign in the 12 Days of Christmas and win this competition while realising that the true meaning of Christmas is sharing the love and laughter of the holiday with your family (of course).
There’s a ton of stop-motion animation in the movie, which is impressive to watch because they look really pretty and oddly realistic, and the voice actors do an excellent job. They are the funniest part of the movie and weirdly relatable, considering they are… trapped people in dolls. However, sometimes the banter can go on for a bit long, and the jokes run for a smidge too much, which makes you roll your eyes. That’s an odd problem with this movie – it does something funny but goes too far with it and takes the charm away from the humour.
The movie also is quite cliched, and adults will find it a bit boring sometimes. As mentioned previously, it takes a cookie-cutter approach and repeats some things that we have all seen previously in one way or another, which really tests your patience sometimes.
However, it’s a Christmas movie, so we can definitely go a little easy on it because, let’s be honest, none of us are watching this with a magnifying glass. It’s a good-looking movie and is entertaining in bursts, and it’s gonna be a fun ride with the kids around you with some cocoa. But then again, I feel like the action isn’t enough to keep the kids glued to the screen either, and the pauses that the movie takes in between will be annoying for everyone watching.
Let’s discuss that ending – it’s the most insane, confusing and dull thing I have watched. It’s not funny, and neither is it interesting, and it’s a repeat of everything that you have watched until now. Things work out for our protagonists a bit too easily and in the weirdest way. They stretch that ending out so badly that it gets boring after a while, and, towards the end, I came to the conclusion that turning this entire movie into stop-motion animation would’ve been better suited than watching just another repetitive Christmas movie that loves to stretch the chaos to pad the runtime.
Eddie Murphy and Jillian Bell are the protagonist and the antagonist, respectively, in this Christmas movie. Bell has her moments of humour, but her funny lines and weird mannerisms get a bit annoying after a while. However, Murphy is fun to follow with his family, and his chemistry with his family is very fun.
Candy Cane Lane Review: Final Thoughts
I feel like this Christmas comedy is just another addition to the Christmas watchlist this year that is oddly boring after a while and has so many sequences that we could’ve done away with. A shorter runtime would’ve made things a bit better and the humour more effective. But here we are.
Check the movie out on Amazon Prime Video on December December 01, 2023.
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