Candy Cane Lane: Movie Review

Cast: Eddie Murphy, Tracee Ellis Ross, Jillian Bell, Nick Offerman
Director: Reginald Hudlin

Eddie Murphy's foray into the Christmas movie genre for Prime Video is a curious outing.

A little bit naughty and a little bit nice in the directing department, the film about Murphy's Chris Carver, a Christmas-obsessed man who's fired just days before the launch of an annual street competition to proclaim the best-dressed house.

Determined to win the $100,000 prize, Carver goes into a pop-up holiday shop manned by Jillian Bell's Peppermint. Signing what he believes is a receipt, he inadvertently endorses a Faustian-like pact to sell off his soul. Learning of his error, he fights to save himself before it's too late.

Candy Cane Lane takes 30 minutes to completely switch gears into a fantasy-muddled mess that had some real potential for something different in the holiday movie genre.

Instead, taunted by the idea of the 12 days of Christmas haunting the family, the movie becomes an odd family-oriented story that mixes horror elements that feel anaemic. And despite the inevitable syrupy elements that mire in portions over how the parents work so hard for the children as well as concerns about moving away from home, Candy Cane Lane isn't quite sure what sort of message it wants to get across.

Yet there are elements that work within for a family movie - the original edges that the story offer prove to be different from the usual holiday movie fare. There are also clever ways that the 12 days of Christmas come to life, but the hit and miss edges of Candy Cane Lane cause more issues than the positives.

Ultimately, Candy Cane Lane is a film that had will find a different audience for Christmas - but it may never enter the echelons of Christmas classics.

Candy Cane Lane streams on Prime Video from December 1.