Eddie Murphyas ChrisThe story
About Candy Cane Lane
Determined to take the prize in his street's Christmas lights competition, a festive-mad father buys a decoration from a peculiar pop-up shop and signs a bargain he has not read properly. The deal brings the Twelve Days of Christmas to life across the neighbourhood, and his family have to undo it before the holiday.
The CineClaus verdict
Murphy in a festive fantasy about a lights competition, a pop-up shop and a bargain he signs without reading.
Once the Twelve Days of Christmas come to life across the street, the film has more ideas than it can manage, and at nearly two hours it feels every one. Christmas is the whole mechanism, from carollers who communicate only in carols to Grier's Father Christmas.
Good-natured, and it could lose twenty minutes without anyone noticing. Best with a full house who want noise more than plot.
The family desk
Can the kids watch?
Our take: rated 12 for language and sex references. Fantasy peril from the Twelve Days curse and a lot of chaos, but it stays comic and ends warmly. Twelve and up, by the rating.
BBFC advice: Language, sex references.
Content advice & accessibility
- Where the advice comes from
- The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).
- Our age guidance
- Editorial, separate from the official 12 certificate, and never looser than it.
