Every Arnold Schwarzenegger Movie Ranked Worst To Best

13. Jingle All The Way

Jingle all the Way Arnold Schwarzenegger Jake Lloyd
20th Century Studios

Once considered one of the low points of Schwarzenegger's nineties pivot to comedy, Jingle All the Way is today something of a festive cult favourite. That evolution should in no small part be credited to Schwarzenegger, whose unique screen presence elevates what could have otherwise been a generic holiday cartoon.

Its appeal lies in the fact that Arnold doesn't really belong in the scenario; he is simply too larger than life to play the part of an absent-minded middle-class dad. And yet, it's something that Jingle All the Way is all too aware of, as it constructs elaborate action-esque scenarios for Schwarzenegger's character, Howard Langston, to get caught up in. There's a cringe-inducing mall chase, a fight with a reindeer, and even a superhero battle to cap things off.

It's dumb, it's nakedly cynical, but even so, there's something admirable in how the film offers no illusions about what Christmas has morphed into. Is it sad that holiday traditions can be boiled down to "buy me Turboman or go to hell!"? Well, yeah, but that's kind of how it's been for a good long while now. The secret here is that it's better to just give in and embrace the chaos - which is also, coincidentally, the best way of enjoying Jingle All the Way.

Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.