“Candy Cane Lane” Movie Review by Rafy Mediavilla (@Rmediavilla) #CandyCaneLaneMovie
Eddie Murphy stars in this holiday comedy adventure about a man on a mission to win his neighborhood’s annual Christmas home decoration contest. After Chris (Eddie Murphy) inadvertently makes a deal with a mischievous elf named Pepper (Jillian Bell) to better his chances of winning, she casts a magic spell that brings the 12 Days of Christmas to life, and wreaks havoc on the whole town. At the risk of ruining the holidays for his family, Chris, his wife Carol (Tracee Ellis Ross), and their three children must race against the clock to break Pepper’s spell, battle deviously magical characters, and save Christmas for everyone.
When you see on paper a Christmas-themed family comedy starring Eddie Murphy and Tracee Ellis Ross, you immediately think this has to be extremely fun, what can go wrong with a pair of great comedy actors, right? A lot, trust me, a lot, and honestly to no fault of their own. I have to admit, I wanted in a blinde when I started watching this movie, thinking the same thing, meaning the Nutty Professor, in a Xmas flick and a lot side a great comedic actress like Tracee Ellis Ross, oh boy is going to be good, and boy, was an I wrong. Let’s discuss it!
Story-wise, the script is all over the place, yes it has all the element of a fun Christmas movie, but the premises of the story is all over the place when joyful dad loses his job the week before Christmas and a TV contest all of the sudden shows up to save this family Christmas from going to hell, chaos unfolds, and that exactly what the script of this movie felt like a chaotic mess of story trying to bring the family together somehow. And if anything it does that in some way or another, if there is something from the script and the way the story unfolded that I did feel it had a little bit of everything within the chaos for the whole family to enjoy.
This movie works exactly as intended in my book, as a great weekend watch with the whole family where mom and dad will laugh at the raunchy inside jokes of some of our more joyful and more colorful characters, and the kids may enjoy the chaos of the story as it unfolds. But aside from that I don’t see any young adult sitting around going bananas over this story, to me the way these characters and the story were developed feels out of date, and not in touch with the times.
But what drove me nuts was the performances by a couple of broadcast journalists who were hosting the so-called “contest” which spoilers alert there was no real price money so this whole chaos of a story was just basically for nothing, the chaos our characters when thought trying to save their dad into becoming just another puppet for an “evil elf” was all in the name of send a message of “family unity”, which honestly gets lost in the chaos of finding these golden rings.
Performance-wise, Eddie Murphy is great as expected, maybe a more tone-down version of what we typically see from him but in my opinion he delivers the comedic touch when needed, and the more serious one also. Nick Offerman was also great, while mostly his voice was provided to give like to one of our more joyful and colorful characters did loved how his arc ended by the final act. If anything, I have to stand out, Tracee Ellis Ross’s performance, she was so fun to watch going back and forward between trying to live her normal life and dealing with the chaos back at home, we did great, and for her performance alone is worth the watch in my opinion.
In the end, Candy Cane Lane is a fun weekend watch for the family given you have nothing better to do, and if you have a Prime Membership it would not hurt hitting play on it at dinner time. But the story is all over the place, some jokes land, others done, and I truly feel young adults will not find a good connection with the characters and the story. On the other hand, kids will love the chaos, all in good fun.
