Fav X-mas films?

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  • Fav X-mas films?

    Hi everyone!! I hope you are all having the best day ever.

    I wanted to start a thread of favorite Christmas themed/holiday themed films.
    With the holiday coming up soon I have thinking more about holiday themed films. There are always good ones out there. Many show each year on tv, but I know there are lots out there that don't get the love that the "traditional" ones get.

    Perhaps you like the traditional ones or you prefer the more obscure films. Each film matters because someone out there loves it.

    So I shall start.....

    Gremlins (1984)
    Scrooge (1970)
    It's a Wonderful Life (1946) (of course)
    Oliver! (1968)
    Krampus (2015)

    I will probably add more later on once the thread gets going.
    Cheers to everyone!!

  • #2
    Re: Fav X-mas films?

    I like "It's A Wonderful Life" and "White Christmas." In "White Christmas" I laugh at Bing Crosby's hip-for-that-time dialogue. However, though I catch bits and pieces or chunks every year I haven't seen them all the way through in probably a few years especially "It's A Wonderful Life."

    I hadn't seen "Home Alone" since it came out (back then I saw it twice in the theater, but never glanced at it again). I saw it the other day with my kid and though I did not enjoy it as much as I did 25 years ago(?) I found the ending touching as I completely forgot that subplot with the elderly neighbor.

    BUT my family's big Xmas movie is "Polar Express." It hits all the right notes. 4 years in a row we've watched it about a week before Xmas and 4 years in a row everyone in the room gets a little misty at the end.

    I think movies like "Lethal Weapon" and "Die Hard" are a stretch in terms of labeling them Xmas films. I bring this up because I saw them on another site's holiday list.

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    • #3
      Re: Fav X-mas films?

      One Xmas movie I do not like and it seems like I'm one of the few is "Elf." I wanted to like it but thought it was just a bad movie.

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      • #4
        Re: Fav X-mas films?

        Die hard
        I heard the starting gun


        sigpic

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        • #5
          Re: Fav X-mas films?

          The 1935 adaptation of Tale of Two Cities has an affecting Christmas sequence.

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          • #6
            Re: Fav X-mas films?

            Remember the Night, Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. Stanwyck is a thief caught for shoplifting, and MacMurray is a DA who provides bond for her over Christmas because he cynically thinks he'll get a stronger conviction after the holidays. But the bail bondsman mistakenly thinks he bailed her out so she'd give him a good time, and delivers her to the DA's apartment just before he's about to visit his mother in Indiana. He buys Stanwyck a meal, and it turns out she's from Indiana too but hasn't been home in years. So they take off on a road trip and spend a corny but very sweet traditional Christmas together and fall in love. Surprising ending, not all is resolved happily. Very moving, Stanwyck's character has a lot of depth. Screenplay by Preston Sturges (one of his best I think) and directed by Mitchell Leisen. The screenplay has been published in a collection of Sturges screenplays and it's a great read.

            Also The Thin Man, Shop around the Corner, Meet John Doe, The Apartment, Le Buche.

            TCM often shows Susan Slept Here around the holidays, seems icky at first but fun Hollywood satire, done in great cartoony style by Frank Tashlin.

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            • #7
              Re: Fav X-mas films?

              While I don't entirely enjoy old Xmas films now or even as a boy I appreciate the era's cinematic take on it. It seemed less retail and more spirit. There were old homes with trees in the foyer and one in the master bedroom and they weren't millionaires. There was a coziness that is hard to match of late.

              But as I get older I get more analytical (it's the writer in me). I watch a film like "Holiday Inn" which is famous for the song "White Christmas." And I can't fathom how the inn keeper (Bing) makes money on this whole endeavor. How can you sustain a business (inn/theater) based on only opening on holidays? So the actors and set designers do nothing all year round but wait for a call saying "It's Columbus day. Get Ready!" How much are they paying people to trek into rural Connecticut from NYC for a holiday weekend every month?

              Oh, and as I do with old TV shows... I marvel at the amount of drinking being done in old Xmas movies. People DRINK then they jump into very heavy cars and drive all over the place. In "Holiday Inn" Fred Astaire and his crew drive up from NYC to rural Connecticut stumbling drunk. Drinking back then was a way of life. It still is to some but more hidden. If they made these movies today you'd see the character push off the drink because he/she has to drive or are dieting, then the character would go into the bathroom and pop 5 painkillers. The character would spend the weekend jogging, texting while jogging and even juicing vegetables. All the whole pretending they didn't have an opiate addiction. Maybe swilling 3 or 4 martinis was the way to go
              Last edited by purplenurple; 12-10-2016, 06:48 AM.

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              • #8
                Re: Fav X-mas films?

                A couple more I really like are National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) and Miracle on 34th st. (the 1947 Maureen O'hara/Natalie Wood version).

                Even though I am not a huge fan of the silly xmas films, Christmas Vacation always seems to be a lot of fun. It holds up (for me at least) over the years.

                These below are a stretch to call Christmas films, but they do show them on tv during the holidays and xmas does happen in each film.....and I personally like them.

                Little Women (1949 June Allyson version)
                Funny Farm (1988 Chevy Chase film)
                Meet Me in St. Louis (1944 Judy Garland film)

                With the exception of Krampus (2015) I really prefer the xmas films of old. The ones nowadays seem to be more on the lines of overt silliness and how difficult xmas is rather than about the good thoughts of home and family one should have around the holiday season. Nostalgia....it does get me right in the feelings.

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                • #9
                  Re: Fav X-mas films?

                  "I really prefer the xmas films of old. The ones nowadays seem to be more on the lines of overt silliness and how difficult xmas is rather than about the good thoughts of home and family one should have around the holiday season." - Darthclaw13


                  I'd say that's about right an assessment.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Fav X-mas films?

                    Bump. I tried watching "White Christmas" the other day and though it's a good looking film it's kind of no-longer-my-cup-of-tea. I felt Bing Crosby looked way too old in high def' to be a corporal in the army. Little things like that took away from enjoyment. The character seems like he should be around 30, maybe 35 tops. Bing, the actor, looks conservatively 50 in that film and that's generous.

                    I did see "White Christmas" episode of Black Mirror and liked it very much. More my current style.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Fav X-mas films?

                      I thought that THE WALTONS: THE HOMECOMING was good. Haven't watched it in ages. I believe it kicked off THE WALTONS television series.

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