Some Favorite Movies for Christmas
Merry Christmas morn. I trust you slept well?
Earlier this week, we discussed two of my favorite holiday movies — A Christmas Story, and my suggestion, Elf Dylan Ratigan show. (Be sure to watch Santa Announcement and The Angry Elf clips).
That got me thinking about some holiday favorites. I pinged a few movie buddies, and here is the list of both non-traditional xmas movies and good old fashioned family fare.
I don’t know what your plans might be for today — the only places that are open will be Chinese Restaurants and Movie theaters — but I plan on firing up the DVD player for some seasonal amusement.
My holiday movie list, form top to bottom, is as follows:
• Elf: The movie: Will Farrell plays a man child raised as an elf at the North Pole. He is sent to the US to “find himself.” The casting is also inspired: James Caan, Bob Newhart, Edward Asner, Mary Steenburgen, Zooey Deschanel, Amy Sedaris, Andy Richter, Kyle Gass, Artie Lange, Leon Redbone.
Its Farrell at his hysterical, “committed performance” best.
• A Christmas Story - Formerly a cult classic, a gentle, satirical look at the early the late 1930s or early 1940s Christmas — long before irony was hip. Its amusing that this has become a modern classic, as it was overlooked for so long. Released in the era before Irony was ubiquitous, it now seems as traditional as they come, with just a hint of subversiveness. (Its 2nd only because I have seen it so many times . . . )
• Bad Santa – Depravity of a hilarious kind, one of many great xmas caper films. Billy Bob Thornton plays a miserable conman who with his partner, pose as Santa and his Little Helper to rob department stores on Christmas Eve. But they run into problems when the conman befriends a troubled kid . . . Bonus flick: The Ice Harvest – Billy Bob and John Cusack in another caper comedy that’s more more noir than noel.)
• Gremlins – Joe Dante’s 1984 American black comedy/horror film. I loved Phoebe Cates’ terrible Christmas memory told completely deadpan. No wonder critics didn’t get it. (Read the film criticism 25 years later for laughs).
Never forget the film’s most heartfelt holiday lesson: RTFM!
• Home Alone – You have to love a holiday comedy that revels in sheer physical abuse of its antagonists, 3 Stooges style. The middle of the film — a 30 minute sequence of brutality where the bad guys — Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern — get demolished by 8 year old Macaulay Culkin.
Written by John Hughs, its his 2nd best film after Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas – A stop motion fantasy film conceived and directed by Tim Burton Xmas Xraziness
• The Ref – Another Xmas caper comedy, with a twist: Denis Leary (accidentally) takes a dysfunctional married couple hostage on Christmas Eve. The couple –played wonderfully by Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis — argue incessantly, and Leary becomes the accidental ref between them. A Christmas movie that reminds us its really all about family . . .
• Scrooged – A funny, dark take on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. David Johansen is the ghost of Christmas past, and Carol Kane plays the ghost of Christmas present. Cameos include Robert Goulet, John Houseman, Lee Majors, along with “street musicians” Miles Davis, Larry Carlton, David Sanborn and Paul Shaffer. Al Green and Annie Lennox sing “Put a Little Love in Your Heart.”
• The Muppet Christmas Carol – one of the better adaptations of the Dickens story
• Santa Clause – ’cause every top 10 list requires a 10th item . . .
Lets not forget the top 10 classics:
It’s a Wonderful Life
Bells of St Marys
Bishop’s Wife
Miracle on 34th St
Holiday inn
Christmas Carol (1951 version is best)
White Xmas
Babes in Toyland (March of the Wooden Soldiers)
We’re No Angels
Christmas in Connecticut
December 25th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Alright. My vote for best Christmas song.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1nxmt_the-pogues-a-fairytale-of-new-york_music
December 25th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Barry
Elf and Christmas story are two of mine and my wife’s favorites! Scrooged is also up there for me. Just thought I’d check in to see what witty things you might be up to on Christmas Day before heading off to the in-laws to see her side of the family.
December 25th, 2009 at 11:45 am
No National Lampoons Xmas Vacation? For shame, might be my favorite movie ever.
December 25th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Hey, don’t forget the heartwarming Die Hard, where Alan Rickman crashes a Christmas party and gets what everyone wishes for him.
December 25th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
All due respect Barry, but you missed the two best Christmas movies of all time:
Die Hard and Lethal Weapon …
Merry Christmas!
~~~
BR: I had them on a longer list, but they are not really holiday films — they just use Christmas as a plot device!
December 25th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Not that it was really a Christmas movie, I always liked John Candy’s “Uncle Buck” movie. Loved “Bad Santa”, very sick. After visiting my sisters, I plan on watching my all time favorite movie “True Rommance”, lots of stars in this movie, a little violent.
December 25th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
If you are looking for movies with Christmas in it — not just Christmas movies — try these:
December 25th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
BTW, my friend Ralph (above) ran the campus films at college (where I got paid to watch movies Friday & Saturday nights, at 7:00, 9:30 and midnite) — we have been friends for decades now.
December 25th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
a christmas story was christmas in the 30’s, not 60’s. just as I suspected, you youngun’s have no historical perspective…. merry christmas
~~~
BR: Guilty. I should not have done that from memory. Better description is “the late 1930s or early 1940s.”
I’ll fix above.
December 25th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Trading Places….a timeless classic and getting better and more timeless each Christmas.
December 25th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles always a classic holiday movie even if it is set for Thanksgiving…also any South Park Christmas special, I personally like Mr. Hankey and the Christmas Criters
December 25th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
no arguing with the fact that we live in a Christian dominated society-
December 25th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
In this nation, for sure — but in most of the rest of the world — not so much!
Interesting breakdown:
1. Christianity: 2.1 billion (33%)
2. Islam: 1.5 billion (21%)
3. Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion (16%)
4. Hinduism: 900 million (14%)
5. Chinese traditional religion: 394 million (6%)
6. Buddhism: 376 million (6%)
7. primal-indigenous: 300 million (6%)
December 25th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
I can never get into Christmas movies, Joyeux Noel it will probably be, I don’t need the subtitles
December 25th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
I forgot, happy holidays to all of you.
December 25th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
no arguing with the fact that we live in a Christian dominated society-
That is quickly fading. The ’spirit’ of Christmas already has terminal disease and I’m predicting it will be dead in ten years. We will still have Christmas but in a decade it will be completely secularized and people will no longer have any tangible connection to the reason behind the season
It is already pretty much dead up here in Canada and with the way the entertainment industry is grinding away at American morality it will not be much longer before it sweeps over the US. That is my prediction that I hope does not come true
December 25th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Interesting facts about the history of Christmas at the History Channel:
http://www.history.com/content/christmas/the-real-story-of-christmas
December 26th, 2009 at 6:01 am
“a christmas story was christmas in the 30’s”
It is also the start of Christmas as we have known it since then, ie massive consumption by everyone not completely broke and family oriented. There was a time when Christmas was more like Mardi Gras or Carnival. It is only in the 20s that mass consumption and advertising really take shape and take off.
And sociology aside, I’ve been a big fan of Jean Sheperd since listening to his radio program in the 60s.
And more pop sociology: The first time that we had a society full of young adults raised on modern Christmas (all toys, no lumps of coal) without their Christmases having been impaired by the Great Depression or WWII was the 60s. Just saying.
December 26th, 2009 at 8:25 am
alright, I’ve never watched Bad Santa, so last night I did, probably me, expecting a little more, found it kind of lumpy in a way, maybe that was the point, like one feels when drunk and with a hangover, deprssion and joy, energy and disgust, redemption and puking, yeha, it had it all, lol
December 26th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
must see in our place:
A Christmas Carol ‘51 with Alastair Sim ( alternately as colorized) interspersed with the Reginald Owen 1938 version.
It’s A Wonderful Life or
Miracle on 34th Street
To be a true Christmas movie it must invoke the Christmas Spirit, otherwise they’re just window dressing.
All religions that you parse above are but spokes to the hub. Get with the hub and nothing else matters; blinded by the light. Go now in peace, and make more of it mes amis.
December 31st, 2009 at 10:33 am
With all due respect and the knowledge of your NYC-East End reportage, the global religion breakdown you list above is 102%. While rounding factor fractions can push a statistic over 100%, this comment is more about questioning why there is no listing % of Judaism out there?