Candy Cane Lane Movie Review Rating:
Star Cast: Eddie Murphy, Tracee Ellis Ross, Jillian Bell, Genneya Walton, Nick Offerman, Trevante Jones
Director: Reginald Hudlin
What’s Good: Watching Eddie Murphy is always a delight, but the porcelain Christmas figures take the cake.
What’s Bad: There is zero chemistry among the family members, so it is hard to take the emotional moments seriously.
Loo Break: The movie is too long for its own good, and towards the second act, there are loo break moments.
Watch or Not?: Watch this only if you really need to watch a Christmas movie. Other than that, avoid it.
Language: English
Available On: Amazon Prime Video
Runtime: 120 Minutes
User Rating:
Christmas season is upon us, and with it, all streaming services are getting ready to throw a metric ton of Christmas movies at our faces. Christmas movies have definitely become a tradition at this point, but sadly, the quantity hasn’t really translated into quality in recent years. Candy Cane Lane is a new film starring Eddie Murphy that combines all the Christmas tropes, including the classic “A Christmas Tale” structure, to tell a story about what really matters in these holidays.
Candy Cane Lane Movie Review: Script Analysis
From the moment Candy Cane Lane starts, the movie makes it plenty clear that this is probably going to be another disposable Christmas film. There is so much Christmas content out there that it is sometimes hard to tell films and TV shows apart. However, Candy Cane Lane has the advantage of counting with Eddie Murphy. The actor is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable faces of the 20th century, and yes, it is true that his star has fallen quite a bit since the 1980s and 1990s, but still, it is better to watch Eddie in one of these movies than anyone else.
The script takes into account basically every single Christmas trope we have seen before. Candy Cane Lane wears its inspirations on its sleeve, and the result is a movie that feels quite familiar, which can be cozy but also boring and tiresome. The movie ends up sitting in the middle of it all. The story, twists, and setups are all things we have seen before. There is definitely nothing new here. However, what really ends up hurting the movie is the characters’ writing.
It is clear that Murphy and most people making this film are probably seeing this movie just as a paycheck gig. This is a project that will probably be forgotten instantly after this Christmas season, and that disposable nature leaks into the writing and the acting. The movie tries to tell a cautionary tale, but it doesn’t really manage to take the characters and put them into situations that feel really emotional or important inside the universe the movie is presenting.
Audiences will probably feel very little for the characters and their situation when the movie ends. The movie tries to lay some groundwork, but the plot moves quickly into the realm of the generic and overdone, and it is hard to care about what is happening on the screen. There are cool production values throughout the film, including surprise characters that appear towards the end, but just beyond that, there is very little in this movie that makes it feel worth watching.
Candy Cane Lane Movie Review: Star Performance
The performances are a bit of a letdown in Candy Cane Lane because the core cast doesn’t have any sort of chemistry among them. This is a fatal flaw for a movie that is trying to make these actors feel like a family. The entire story hinges on the fact that these people are a family, and they need to come together at the worst of times. When the story finally arrives at the moment where this storyline needs to pay off, the result is almost numb.
Eddie Murphy is a delight, and he commands the screen quite well, but the actor is not in it. Murphy is on autopilot. The rest of his family tries to do better, especially the kids, because, for them, this could really be a breakthrough into the industry, but no matter what they do, they cannot overcome the weak script and dialogue. It is also quite sad to see Trevante Jones, one of the most promising actors of his generation, doing work like this instead of something better.
Candy Cane Lane Movie Review: Direction, Music
The visual design of the movie is all over the place. The movie has this over the top quality that so many Christmas movies like to use. It feels like movies like this need to remind everyone that this is a Christmas movie in every single frame. It gets tiresome and overwhelming. There is Christmas just about everywhere, and there is really nothing worse than having the lighting feel like the lighting at a supermarket.
The visual effects team does better when it comes to delivering quality results. Some of the visual effects are very well done, and they represent some of the most amusing bits in the movie. There are also these little Christmas figures made with CGI that are just a delight. Maybe the entire movie would have been better by turning everyone into one of these figurines, but that would be too expensive.
Candy Cane Lane Movie Review: The Last Word
In the end, Candy Cane Lane does the bare minimum when it comes to the plot, and the acting doesn’t help to raise the level of the story. The visual effects team does a very good job, but they also cannot lift the movie by themselves. Sadly, Candy Cane Lane doesn’t amount to much. It is fine as a movie to watch one time during these holidays, but it is incredibly generic and forgettable.
Candy Cane Lane Trailer
Candy Cane Lane releases on December 1, 2023.
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For more recommendations, read our Wonka Movie Review here.
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The post Candy Cane Lane Movie Review Rating: Eddie Murphy Comes Back For Christmas With A Classic Cautionary Tale For The Holidays appeared first on Koimoi.
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