Candy Cane Lane

It does stand out in one area, offering more product placement than any movie in recent memory. It's all very sad.

Reginald Hudlin’s film is self-aware, but it’s very broad and in trying to do too much achieves little.

The best scenes have nothing to do with Christmas, such as Chris and Carol expressing their love and support for each other, and the children telling their father that he’s parenting for himself not them.

“Candy Cane Lane” shows you that the Christmas movie as we’ve known it may be all used up, and that it has now entered its anything-goes surrealist phrase. ‘Tis the season to be batty.

For the most part, though, it’s an exercise in holiday magic that barely musters a spark, executed in such by-the-numbers fashion even a closing outtakes sequence doesn’t yield any laughs.

A frenzied family friendly film as overstuffed as a Christmas stocking, as nutty as a chestnut, and, ultimately, as warm as an open fire.

Filled with holiday tropes and cliches, like elves, exuberant decorations and black Santa, Candy Cane Lane is a comforting Christmas film that will leave you with the message of hope, love and family.

This Christmas comedy is oddly boring and has so many sequences that we could’ve done away with.

Candy Cane Lane lacks emotional resonance, but the simplicity of its message allows it to be solid enough for a Christmas movie.

Candy Cane Lane has “instant classic” written all over it, and has the potential to boldly go where no Black Christmas movie has gone before because of the universality of the story and the crossover appeal of Murphy and Ross.