The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad as Howard Langston and Myron Larabee, two rival fathers living in Minneapolis desperately trying to purchase the popular Turbo Man action figure for their respective sons on a last-minute shopping spree on Christmas Eve.
Producer Chris Columbus rewrote the script, adding in elements of satire about the commercialization of Christmas, and the project was picked up by 20th Century Fox.
Delays to Fox's reboot of Planet of the Apes allowed Schwarzenegger to come on board the film, while Columbus opted to cast Sinbad instead of Joe Pesci as Myron.
In Minneapolis, workaholic mattress salesman Howard Langston loves his wife, Liz, and nine-year-old son, Jamie, but rarely finds time for them.
On Christmas Eve, Howard sets out to buy the toy, but finds that every store has sold out, and in the process develops a rivalry with Myron Larabee, a postal worker father with the same goal.
In desperation, Howard attempts to buy a figure from a counterfeit ring run by con artists dressed in Santa suits, which results in a massive fight in the warehouse that is broken up by the police.
The ensuing fight between them results in the diner's phone getting disconnected, forcing them to race to the radio station on foot, where the DJ reveals that the competition was actually for a Turbo Man gift certificate.
In retaliation, Howard starts to steal the Turbo Man doll Ted bought for his son, Johnny, but can't bring himself to do it.
[5][6] Randy Kornfield wrote the film's original screenplay after witnessing his in-laws go to a Santa Monica toy store at dawn in order to get his son a Power Ranger.
[5] While admitting to missing the clamor for the Cabbage Patch Kids and Power Rangers, producer Chris Columbus experienced a similar situation in 1995 when he attempted to obtain a Buzz Lightyear action figure from the film Toy Story, released that year.
[19] Principal production finished in August; Columbus "fine-tun[ed] the picture until the last possible minute," using multiple test audiences "to see where the big laughs actually lie.
Columbus dismissed this notion, stating that with only roughly 200,000 Turbo Man toys being made, the merchandising was far less than the year's other releases, such as Space Jam and 101 Dalmatians.
[7] The film's release coincided with the Tickle Me Elmo craze, in which high demand for the doll during the 1996 Christmas season led to store mobbing similar to that depicted for Turbo Man.
[30] In 1998, Murray Hill Publishing sued 20th Century Fox for $150,000, claiming that the idea for the film was stolen from a screenplay they had purchased from high school teacher Brian Webster entitled Could This Be Christmas?
Despite its fairly entertaining buildup and somewhat serious commentary on materialism during the holidays, the end of the movie takes a realistic conceit and adds in comedy sci-fi elements.
The site's critical consensus reads, "Arnold Schwarzenegger tries his best, but Jingle All the Way suffers from an uneven tone, shifting wildly from a would-be satire on materialism to an antic, slapstick yuk-fest.
Although he felt that the script did not provide sufficient opportunity for Hartman, Wilson and Conrad to give exceptional performances, he opined that "Schwarzenegger has developed a light comic delivery, punctuated occasionally by an ironic one-liner," while "Sinbad has good moments".
[43] Neil Jeffries of Empire disagreed, feeling Schwarzenegger to be "wooden" and Sinbad to be "trying desperately to be funnier than his hat" but praised Lloyd as the "saving grace" of the film.
[44] The New York Times critic Janet Maslin felt the film lacked any real plot, failed in its attempt at satire, should have included Myron's only mentioned son and "mostly wasted" Hartman, while Levant's direction was "listless".
[45] Similarly, the BBC's Neil Smith criticized the film's script, its focus on the commercialization of Christmas, as well as Schwarzenegger's performance which shows "the comic timing of a dead moose," but singled out Hartman for praise.
"[46] Jack Garner of USA Today condemned the film, finding it more "cynical" than satirical, stating "this painfully bad movie has been inspired strictly by the potential jingle of cash registers."
"[48] IGN's Mike Drucker praised its subject matter as "one of the few holiday movies to directly deal with the commercialization of Christmas" although felt the last twenty minutes of the film let it down, as the first hour or so had "some family entertainment" value if taken with a "grain of salt".
He concluded the film was "a member of the so-corny-its-good genre," while "Arnold delivers plenty of one-liners ripe for sound board crank callers.
"[27] Jamie Malanowski of The New York Times praised the film's satirical premise but felt it was "full of unrealized potential" because "the filmmakers [wrongly] equate mayhem with humor.
"[49] Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars, writing that he "liked a lot of the movie", which he thought had "energy" and humor which would have mass audience appeal.