Sunday, December 12, 2010

My favorite movies for Christmas

As soon as we were home from our Thanksgiving visit to my Sister's, my kids and I found Elf on television! I loved how Elf and Will Farrell helped to kick off Christmas movie season for me this year, and it has inspired me to make a list of some of my favorites, starting with...

Elf 

I had my doubts about this one, but two years back, my kids finally sat me down to watch it. I'm glad I did. It's sooooo funny. An all star cast, all great!

From imdb
After inadvertently wreaking havoc on the elf community due to his ungainly size, a man raised as an elf at the North Pole is sent to the U.S. in search of his true identity.
Hilarity ensues. Buddy, the man-elf in question, is new to New York and it's people...


As a side note, my daughter and her friends always point out signs where they see "World's Best _______," and joke that they should go inside to congratulate them on their World's Best Bagel!  ...or donut.  ...or pastrami.

You will love Buddy the elf.



The list

Not in any particular order, and certainly never ending, I bring you some of my favorite Christmas movies.


Love Actually

Not a traditional Christmas movie, and not for kids. Kids will find it boring, yet not quite inappropriate enough to sit through.

From imdb.com (The Internet Movie Database)
Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely and interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.
A romantic multi-sub-plot movie where the scenes are lightly interwoven, Love Actually is by Richard Curtis, of Bridget Jones, Notting Hill, and Four Weddings and a Funeral fame. I love this guy's movies, but I love the chick flick thing, too. If you don't, skip down.

Here's the best song in the movie.  Billy Mack, take it away!



There's an entire music video for the song, but it's no longer available online in a nice format. Here's a low rez clip for a bit of the flavor.


A Christmas Story

Triple Dog Dared...
Ralphie (AKA Messy Marvin) tries to convince his parents that a BB gun is a great Christmas present.

"You'll shoot your eye out!" -- virtually every adult in the movie

This seems to be on everyone's list of favorites, with good reason. A great story of boyhood centered around Ralphie's Christmas, back in the 40s.



Some movies are just awesome movies, like Trading Places. I forgot Christmas was part of it, but it's got Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Eddie Murphy wearing their Christmas best. Especially Jamie Lee Curtis...

Trading Places is about wwo callus billionaire brothers manipulating and reversing the roles of a wall street commodities broker (Aykroyd) and a street hustler (Murphy), right smack dab in the middle of the holiday season. Hilarity and revenge ensue.




It's a Wonderful Life

Despite the fact that it's a classic and appears on everyone's list, it is good. Not as good as you'd hope, but it's good enough. It's got a good message, if you can make it to the end (it's a little long).



It's got the innocence (and bad acting) of all those old movies. Gotta love it!




From imdb
On Christmas Eve during world War I, the Germans, French, and Scottish fraternize and get to know the men who live on the opposite side of a brutal war, in what became a true lesson of humanity.


The best thing and worst thing about this movie, is that the story of this Christmas Truce is a true one.



Not exactly a movie, but you can get it on DVD!  The Jim Carrey Grinch is good, too, but this one is worth the watch. It's on tv every season, but if you miss it, buy it and watch it every year.




Christmas Vacation


A sequel that's as good as the original, if not better.



I recently heard Chevy Chase interviewed, and he said that Christmas Vacation was the film he's asked about most often, and I can see why. This movie gets better and better every year.




What's on your list?


I know my list is fairly short, but I'm hoping to add to it every year.  What are some of the missing favorite Christmas movies for you?

3 comments:

  1. Smoke -- hugely great xmas story

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pyrrho, I just saw Smoke on an airplane. I forgot all about the Christmas part!

    It was an enjoyable movie. I don't know if it was originally a play, but it felt like one. Once I put myself in that mode, it was good.

    Thanks for the reminder.

    ReplyDelete

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