Brian Levant directs this festive comedy starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Howard Langston (Schwarzenegger) is a busy executive who wants to keep in his son's good books by buying him the present at the top of his Christmas list: the Turbo Man doll. The only problem is that Turbo Man is the most popular toy in America and most department stores have sold out. Howard spends a desperate Christmas Eve attempting to track down his son's dream present, but finds himself in constant conflict with a crazed postman on a similar mission. From . It's Christmas Eve, and Arnold needs to find a Turbo Man action figure, the craze of the season. Only they're sold out, of course. So the race is on, and the Austrian Oak must do fierce battle with other shoppers and merchants alike, all for the prize toy with which to purchase his son's affections. All of which is unwittingly very sad, on the content level. But the film supposes itself to be amiable enough, on its own shabby terms, even when it climbs out of the screen and starts gnawing at your furniture. If the humour were to get broader it would make HDTV obsolete. The tone can only be termed good-naturedly mean-spirited. Goofy carnival music runs continuously in the background so we never forget that what we're seeing is, er, um, funny. All the action is composed of comic violence, like an unhip Warner Bros. cartoon. Do the filmmakers actually consider this cynical foray to be indicative of the Christmas spirit Apparently so, because the resolution has Arnold winning quite inadvertently, and offers no clear alternative to the competitive commercialism that drives the film's attempts at humour. In a key scene that's meant to be touching, Arnold and his chief rival Sinbad sit down for a heart-to-heart in which we learn that receiving much-wanted Christmas presents in our formative years is responsible for our success in adulthood. You get that Turbo Man, you'll be a billionaire don't get it, you'll be a loser. Such is the formidable challenge of parenthood, to cater to the child's whims while it can still make a difference. This is what's wrong with America. -- Jim Gay, .com From the Back Cover Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in this hilarious holiday comedy as a father desperate to buy that must-have Christmas toy during a frantic last-minute shopping spree on Christmas Eve. Howard Langston (Schwarzenegger) has promised his young son a Turbo man action figure for Christmas, unaware it's the season's hottest-selling toy. And so begins a frenzied quest that pits Howard against a stressed out mailman (Sinbad), a sleazy Santa impersonator (James Belushi) and every other harried parent in town, in "the best holiday family film in years" (Don Stotter, Entertainment Time-Out).
