Weekend Watch: Candy Cane Lane, Obliterated

Eddie Murphy does Christmas and the Cobra Kai team parties hard

Image Credit: Amazon Studios

Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, where I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Eddie Murphy’s got Christmas chaos and a tactical team has terrorist trouble. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite and Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite

Eddie Murphy has made family-friendly comedies before, but when he dilutes his crazier side for the sake of all-ages entertainment, the results can be hugely variable. With Candy Cane Lane, the latest film to arrive via his deal with Amazon’s Prime Video service, he’s adding an extra festive layer to the cosy laugh-grabbing efforts. And the results remain mixed.

Candy Cane Lane is the story of Chris Carver (Murphy), whose life has suddenly been hit by a downturn as he’s laid off from his job. Desperate to help his family by winning his street’s annual Christmas decorating competition (which now includes a hefty cash prize), he inadvertently makes a deal with a mischievous elf named Pepper (Jillian Bell) to better his chances of victory, she casts a magic spell that brings the 12 Days of Christmas to life and wreaks havoc on the whole town.

At the risk of ruining the holidays for his family, Chris, his wife Carol (Tracee Ellis Ross), and their three children must race against the clock to break Pepper’s spell, battle deviously magical characters, and save Christmas for everyone… So far, so high concept. Murphy is certainly on mellow mode here despite Chris’ increasingly tightly wound concerns about Chrimbo chaos. But he’s still fun to watch, even if the lion’s share of the laughter comes from Bell, who has been stealing scenes for years (and has had the occasional lead role such as in Brittany Runs A Marathon) and runs away with every single one of her appearances here.

Director Reginald Hudlin, reuniting with Murphy for the first time since 1992’s Boomerang, creates adequate festive frolics here, working from a script by Disney and Muppets veteran Kelly Younger. The 12 Days elements allow for some amusing scenes, such as the Leaping Lords re-imagined as ninjas and the Geese-A-Laying carpet bombing people with eggs from the sky.

And around Murphy and Bell, there exists a solid ensemble, including comedy veteran Ross and the likes of Nick Offerman, Chris Redd and Robin Thede (who show up as living figurines to warn Chris that the same fate will befall him if he can’t get out of Pepper’s Mephistophelian contract. Aside from a bizarre British accent choice for Offerman, they’re consistently funny.

The film stumbles as it tries to shoehorn in the expected sentiment and life lessons, which is a downfall of so many comedies, especially with Christmas in the mix. But while it seems unlikely to end up on a rotation of seasonal classics, Candy Cane Lane is amusing enough and ends up closer to ho-ho-ho than ho-hum.

Candy Cane Lane is on Prime Video globally now.

Image Credit: Netflix

Far from the family-friendly scale is Obliterated, the new show from Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald, who created the superb Karate Kid spin-off Cobra Kai, which I wrote about in a dedicated column here and have reviewed Seasons three, four and five.

It’s fair to say I was in the tank for whatever the trio wanted to come up with next but to badly paraphrase the tagline of Teen Wolf, I wanted it to be special, but I never expected this! Obliterated most certainly sees the creators return to the world of R-rated comedy where they cut their teeth (Hurwitz and Schlossberg on the Harold & Kumar Movies, Heald on Hot Tub Time Machine.) By its nature, Cobra Kai stays within the PG boundaries of the original franchise.

Obliterated… really, really does not. For both good and ill

It follows an elite special forces team that thwarts a deadly threat to Las Vegas. After their celebratory party, filled with booze, drugs and sex, the team discovers that the bomb they deactivated was a fake. The now intoxicated team has to fight through their impairments, overcome their issues, find the real bomb, and save the world. Yes, that… old story?

Very much a mix of various 1980s action comedies and The Hangover, Obliterated doesn’t hold back when it comes to violence, drugs and sex to varying degrees of entertainment. When it works, it’s fantastic, blending compelling characters with ridiculous action and some laugh-out-loud moments. But, like a kid spitting out ideas, it sometimes doesn’t know when to stop and steers right into the occasional, painfully unfunny gulch.

For me, it worked more than it didn’t, and I had a lot of fun as the story developed –– the creative team knew where they were going, and if you buy into the utterly ridiculous tone, you’ll be entertained.

Obliterated is on Netflix now. I’ve seen the entire first season.