Santa Arnold enlists Reacher to save Christmas in The Man With The Bag trailer

With apologies to the title of director Adam Shankman’s new holiday comedy, Christmas movies are a mixed bag. Finding the right balance of sickly sweet and funny takes a steady hand (if not outright Christmas magic), so viewers might look askance at the new trailer for The Man With The Bag, a holiday caper in which Santa Claus (Arnold Schwarzenegger) enlists an expert thief on the naughty list (Reacher‘s Alan Ritchson) to steal back his magic toy bag from a rebellious elf (Awkwafina).

After all, the last time Arnold stepped into the Christmas genre was for 1996’s infamously atonal flop Jingle All The Way. This time at least, he’s playing none other than Kris Kringle himself, the onetime Terminator now showing off his twinkly old guy charms as he recruits Ritchson’s burly bad guy to help him save Christmas, with the requisite adorable little girl (Berkeley James as Ritchson’s neglected daughter) in tow. And if the trailer brings up a few troublesome questions (Arnold’s Santa says he can’t be “naughty” himself, but isn’t it naughty to hire a criminal to steal something for you?), they’re nothing the sight of Arnold Schwarzenegger crowd surfing in Santa gear can’t set right. 

With the towering Ritchson accepting the action-comedy torch from aging former Hollywood behemoth Schwarzenegger and a supporting cast including Michael Cyril Creighton, Liza Koshy, Kyle Mooney, Jane Krakowski and Ken Jeong along for the (enchanted sleigh) ride, look for The Man With The Bag to land on Prime Video on December 2.