If there’s just one person who should be on the Naughty List this year, let it be Eddie Murphy, who is about to release Candy Cane Lane, one of the worst Christmas movies of all time. Even Deck the Halls, which has a similar premise and boasts a 6 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, doesn’t come close to the atrocities of Murphy’s convoluted mess.
Candy Cane Lane, releasing Dec. 1 on Prime Video, begins with a promising plot: Chris Carver (Murphy) is laid off from his job mere days before Christmas. With three kids, one of whom has her eyes set on going to college at the pricey Notre Dame University, Chris and his ambitious wife Carol (Tracee Ellis Ross) scramble over how they’ll buy presents and survive into the new year with a lack of funds. An angel is sent from heaven in the form of a neighborhood Christmas lights competition, which promises to bestow $100,000 on the house with the finest exterior holiday decor.
This would make for a fun, festive storyline on its own. Chris banters with his haughty neighbor Bruce (Ken Marino), who has won the competition for the past several years and appears to have a good shot this season, too. The kids are enlisted in Chris’ conquests to dominate in the challenge. Alas, even 30 minutes into the film, while Chris is toiling away at his Christmas lights, we still haven’t been introduced to the main plot of Candy Cane Lane.
