Next up is Candy Cane Lane from Amazon Prime Video. With a rather boring title, who knows what this is about.
Every year, Chris (Eddie Murphy) tries to make his homemade Christmas display beat his neighbor’s inflatable display in the neighborhood decoration contest. To upgrade his display this year, he buys a 12 Days of Christmas tree from an elf named Pepper (Jillian Bell). But when he signs his credit card slip, he unknowingly makes a pact that brings the 12 Days to life. Now he must gather all of the golden rings or he will be turned into a figurine for her store.
The “try to outdo Christmas decorations” is a tired plotline. We’ve seen it a lot. However, the twist of bringing the 12 Days of Christmas to life and having to gather all of the golden rings was a nice change. I also really liked the way they portrayed the days. The fight at the high school track was pretty awesome.
I didn’t find myself liking Chris or his wife, Carol (Tracee Ellis Ross), very much. They kept nagging their children to do things they want to do. “Go to the college we want you to attend” and “Don’t be interested in music, even though you are in the marching band and we have obviously spent a lot of money on instrument lessons.” Unfortunately, this means that I didn’t really care if he turned into a figure. I wanted the current figures to be turned back into humans more than I wanted Chris to save himself. The side characters really were the highlight of the movie.
Rating: Can I live with the figures?