Candy Cane Lane – A Middling Holiday Comedy (Early Review)

Candy Cane Lane is Prime Video’s newest Christmas comedy and stars Eddie Murphy in the lead role. The story sees, recently fired, Chris Carver (Murphy) gearing up for his local neighborhood Christmas competition between his neighbors as they competed to see who has the best decorated house. Determined to win and claim a cash prize, Chris makes a pact with an elf named Pepper (Bell) to help him, who in return casts a spell that brings the 12 days of Christmas to life where unexpected chaos soon followed. The film is the very definition of a serviceable streaming release, nothing more nothing less. While there isn’t anything all that great here, there isn’t anything terrible about it either. At the end of the day, it’s a prime example of mediocre product that will likely satisfy families and please its target audience well enough without doing anything more than that.

The best thing about any film featuring Eddie Murphy is usually always Murphy, and this is one is no exception. Thankfully not phoning it in, his engagement surprisingly goes a long way in a film like this. Murphy delivers everything required of him and adds a lot more enjoyment than there would have been without him. Ross is solid as Chris’ wife Carol and works well off Murphy while Bell is clearly having fun in a role that could’ve easily came off as annoying in lesser hands. Though the film might lack big laughs, there are admittedly quite a few chuckles throughout. Meanwhile, it’s nice to see some humor more geared towards adults while maintaining its status as a family film. Perfectly harmless, it simply moves from one set piece to the next in an entertaining enough fashion in a way that generates enough enjoyment out of its fantastical premise. The visual effects are surprisingly strong for a streaming film as well and it does look like MGM/Amazon poured effort and money into this which is evident on the screen.

Where the film ultimately suffers is in its runtime and overall execution. It has absolutely no business being nearly 2-hours long and drags heavily towards the end thanks to several scenes and characters that serve absolutely no purpose to the story and could have been removed altogether. The first act takes way too long to get going and its third act feels bloated beyond belief with a climax that seemingly goes on forever. While there are definitely chuckles to be had, it’s a shame that a new Eddie Murphy film isn’t funnier and never reaches laugh out loud territory. None of its side characters are all that memorable and despite being entertaining, the film is never as fun or magical as it clearly strives to be. Hudlin doesn’t do a bad job behind the camera but he’s such an odd choice for a project like this and might not have been the greatest fit despite his past successful collaboration with Murphy.

In the end, Candy Cane Lane is neither good nor bad, but rather lands somewhere squarely in the middle without fully crossing over into either side. The film will likely please families looking for a new Christmas film to watch this holiday season (and is fortunately the best of this year’s Christmas streaming film slate so far), however, there are so many better options to choose from. It is only truly worth recommending to those in need of something new to watch. It’s just a shame to see Eddie Murphy make a glorious and much deserved comeback, starting with 2019’s Dolemite is My Name, only to follow it up with nothing but mediocrity since.

still courtesy of Prime Video

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/