OK, here are the two biggest problems with this movie: Judge Reinhold and the sibling sub-plot. Nothing against Judge Reinhold, he's a decent enough actor when it comes to lighter fare like fathers inhabiting their sons bodies or flinging coffee into a robbers face but in this film we're expected to believe that Judge Reinhold is an ex-Black Ops Officer? Can't do it; my apologies. Knowing that Judge took this role to pay the rent and get a free trip to Bulgaria makes it a bit more forgivable from his point of view, but the casting director really should have gone for a younger, more athletic B-movie actor, like Antonio Sabato Jr. Sorry Mr. Reinhold, no hard feelings. Things are looking up for good ol' Judge, however, because he's got at least 14 more Santa Clause movies he can do with Tim Allen and Eddie Murphy is trying to revisit a time in his career when he was still relevant by going forward with Beverly Hills Cop IV.
*SPOILER AHEAD*
Also, what was with the sister?! Her accent was waaayyyy too thick (to the point that I couldn't understand what she was saying and with the lack of subtitles written into the DVD...) and her character was useless save for the fact that she provides a way to end the movie. Why not make Jerry an only child and develop a love interest. Same actress (dubbed over of course), different character name, and an extra ten minutes spent on explaining how/why they hook up. The ten minutes could easily have been lost from the "map" chase scene. Even the fact that most of the aircraft featured in the film were CGI didn't bother me as they did a decent job on their surely shoe-string budget.
What is, perhaps, one of the most interesting features of this movie is William Zabka, as the antagonist. What's that you say? Who the hell is William Zabka? See if this will jog your memory. No really, the bad-ass kid from The (original) Karate Kid, is now a washed up B-Movie actor. Go figure. You can catch Mr. Zabka in his latest film: Hot Tub Time Machine. Seriously. I couldn't make this stuff up.
All in all, I'd have to say that this movie wasn't so awful that I wanted to poor acid into my ocular cavities. If USA still ran their "Up All Night" showcase of B-Movies I would have watched it and enjoyed it (assuming that Gilbert Gottfried was not hosting and it was that one hot chick. Rhonda was her name?).
4 out of 10 stars.
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