its that time of year again... Christmas!!
my top 10 Christmas films are as follows:
10. Silent Night, Deadly Night (A nog-sipping classic about a kid that witnesses his family being murdered on Christmas eve by a psychotic Santa Claus impersonator. Years later the blocked memories come back to haunt him. If I say anymore, you wont want to rent it...oh yeah, he dies at the end.
9. Scrooged (Late 80s comedy's take on the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol does the parody with a great amount of comical genius and a surprisingly equal amount of respect to the original storyline as Bill Murray becomes the victim of the Ghosts of Christmas when his selfish, greedy ways become a nuisance to society. The brotherhood speech that Bill gives at the end could not have been any better
8. Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer (It's claymation and it's better that The Nightmare Before Christmas, need I say more?)
7. Gremlins (long before Tim Burton had an idea for mixing Halloween and Christmas in The Nightmare Before Christmas, Joe Dante created this little Christmas nightmare about apparently cute and well-minded little furballs turning into hideous monsters and ravaging a town on Christmas eve. Complete with zillions of funny in-jokes, cool special effects, Steven Spielberg's approval and the intoxicatingly cute Phoebe Cates (who thankfully is not a slut in this film), this goes down in the history book as certainly one of the most unusual of family Christmas treats.)
6. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (While not officially a "Christmas Film," this awesome James Bond flick is, in fact, the only James Bond film to take place at Christmas and my personal favorite Bond film. Along with that destiction, it's also the only Bond film in which the character gets married, the only bond film to star George Lazenby (who was far better than Connery, Mooore, Dalton and Brosnan combined,) the only one to feature a bald Telly Savales as Blofeld, one of only 2 Bond films to feature a high speed pursuit on a bobsled track and the only Bond film to place Mr. Bond in a horse barn literally taking a role in the hey with a sexy Bond lady whilst Christmas music is playing in the background. Well worth the astonishing 2 hours and 20 minutes, making it also the longest of the Bond series.)
5. Santa Claus: The movie (From Jeanotte Schwarc, the esteemed director of Jaws 2 and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, comes this little bit of magical celluloid focussing on Santa Claus' search for a renegade helper elf (played terrifically by the late Dudley Moore) gone AWOL due to lack of respect from the big man. The Elf flees to New York City to find refuge under the employment of John Lithgow's deliciously evil character B.Z.'s toy company. It doesn't take long for Patch, the elf, to discover that B.Z. is up to no good. Meanwhile Santa Claus has befriended a young, homeless NYC street kid to help find Patch. It just happens to turn out that out of 3 million young ladies in the big apple, the homeless kid has a crush on none other than B.Z.'s niece! In stalking B.Z.'s niece, the homeless kid and Santa discover the ultimate evil: B.Z. is using Patch's magical candy canes to take over Christmas!!! rent the film to find out how it ends. I will not ruin it for the lot of you.
4. Miracle on 34th st. (Santa Claus is coming to town (or more acurately "The City") to make a little girl that doesnt believe in Santa realize that he does exist...only problem is Santa's a senile, alchoholic bum that gets taken to court for fraud...what gives? Why is this #4 on my list? The Black and White cinematography is beautiful and I needed some classic film credibility to make this list look good.)
3. Ernest Saves Christmas (a stupendous achievement in the Christmas film genre. Made in the grand tradition of classics such as Miracle on 34th st. and Santa Claus: The Movie, Ernest Saves Christmas is yet another story that focuses on the immortal character of Santa Claus. This one involves Santa Claus (played marvelously by Douglas Seale) becoming too old for the job and enlisting the help of the our favorite Tennessee redneck Ernest P. Worrell to find the best candidate to replace him after everyone else decides he's just a senile old man (a concept poorly ripped off, or rather re-used, by Disney years later with Tim Allen in the attrocious Hollywood travesty: The Santa Clause...with the exception of Ernest helping, of course.) Well, as you can imagine, when Ernest is helping you save the holiday you can bet there will be plenty of goofy madness around every corner. This is a definate Christmas gem. The writing is excellent and the acting has not been topped by any other Disney junk to date. The only downside is that Disney forced the film-makers to have it take place in Orlando, FL which is not cool, but the director John R. Cherry sticks it to the big producers by writing in a subplot in which Santa makes it snow in Florida on Christmas Eve. Bring plenty of Kleenax, because the scene where Pamela returns the magic bag to Santa is a tear-jerker every time.
2. A Christmas Carol (1951)(At least one version of the most refilmed Christmas story in history must be on everyones list and this one's a doozy. The definate choice as best of the lot. Alister Sim plays Scrooge like no other actor: past, present or future. The acting, directing and cinematography are above excellent and the groovy special effects were far ahead of their time. Words cannot descibe the magic this film produces. Just rent it and get the chestnuts ready!
1. Die Hard (a heartfelt story that takes place on Christmas Eve about a hardworking NYC cop that's invited to his wife's business' Christmas party and ends up giving her and her co-workers the best Christmas gift ever when he saves their lives from deadly terrorist who are planning to overtake their new high rise building and kill them all. As John McClain, Bruce Willis outwits the sophisticated European criminals with his big city street smarts and caps them off one by one. An instant holiday classic that the whole family can sit by the fireplace and view while sipping the egg nog.)
Hope this helps a little when you're at the video store
10. Silent Night, Deadly Night (A nog-sipping classic about a kid that witnesses his family being murdered on Christmas eve by a psychotic Santa Claus impersonator. Years later the blocked memories come back to haunt him. If I say anymore, you wont want to rent it...oh yeah, he dies at the end.
9. Scrooged (Late 80s comedy's take on the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol does the parody with a great amount of comical genius and a surprisingly equal amount of respect to the original storyline as Bill Murray becomes the victim of the Ghosts of Christmas when his selfish, greedy ways become a nuisance to society. The brotherhood speech that Bill gives at the end could not have been any better
8. Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer (It's claymation and it's better that The Nightmare Before Christmas, need I say more?)
7. Gremlins (long before Tim Burton had an idea for mixing Halloween and Christmas in The Nightmare Before Christmas, Joe Dante created this little Christmas nightmare about apparently cute and well-minded little furballs turning into hideous monsters and ravaging a town on Christmas eve. Complete with zillions of funny in-jokes, cool special effects, Steven Spielberg's approval and the intoxicatingly cute Phoebe Cates (who thankfully is not a slut in this film), this goes down in the history book as certainly one of the most unusual of family Christmas treats.)
6. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (While not officially a "Christmas Film," this awesome James Bond flick is, in fact, the only James Bond film to take place at Christmas and my personal favorite Bond film. Along with that destiction, it's also the only Bond film in which the character gets married, the only bond film to star George Lazenby (who was far better than Connery, Mooore, Dalton and Brosnan combined,) the only one to feature a bald Telly Savales as Blofeld, one of only 2 Bond films to feature a high speed pursuit on a bobsled track and the only Bond film to place Mr. Bond in a horse barn literally taking a role in the hey with a sexy Bond lady whilst Christmas music is playing in the background. Well worth the astonishing 2 hours and 20 minutes, making it also the longest of the Bond series.)
5. Santa Claus: The movie (From Jeanotte Schwarc, the esteemed director of Jaws 2 and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, comes this little bit of magical celluloid focussing on Santa Claus' search for a renegade helper elf (played terrifically by the late Dudley Moore) gone AWOL due to lack of respect from the big man. The Elf flees to New York City to find refuge under the employment of John Lithgow's deliciously evil character B.Z.'s toy company. It doesn't take long for Patch, the elf, to discover that B.Z. is up to no good. Meanwhile Santa Claus has befriended a young, homeless NYC street kid to help find Patch. It just happens to turn out that out of 3 million young ladies in the big apple, the homeless kid has a crush on none other than B.Z.'s niece! In stalking B.Z.'s niece, the homeless kid and Santa discover the ultimate evil: B.Z. is using Patch's magical candy canes to take over Christmas!!! rent the film to find out how it ends. I will not ruin it for the lot of you.
4. Miracle on 34th st. (Santa Claus is coming to town (or more acurately "The City") to make a little girl that doesnt believe in Santa realize that he does exist...only problem is Santa's a senile, alchoholic bum that gets taken to court for fraud...what gives? Why is this #4 on my list? The Black and White cinematography is beautiful and I needed some classic film credibility to make this list look good.)
3. Ernest Saves Christmas (a stupendous achievement in the Christmas film genre. Made in the grand tradition of classics such as Miracle on 34th st. and Santa Claus: The Movie, Ernest Saves Christmas is yet another story that focuses on the immortal character of Santa Claus. This one involves Santa Claus (played marvelously by Douglas Seale) becoming too old for the job and enlisting the help of the our favorite Tennessee redneck Ernest P. Worrell to find the best candidate to replace him after everyone else decides he's just a senile old man (a concept poorly ripped off, or rather re-used, by Disney years later with Tim Allen in the attrocious Hollywood travesty: The Santa Clause...with the exception of Ernest helping, of course.) Well, as you can imagine, when Ernest is helping you save the holiday you can bet there will be plenty of goofy madness around every corner. This is a definate Christmas gem. The writing is excellent and the acting has not been topped by any other Disney junk to date. The only downside is that Disney forced the film-makers to have it take place in Orlando, FL which is not cool, but the director John R. Cherry sticks it to the big producers by writing in a subplot in which Santa makes it snow in Florida on Christmas Eve. Bring plenty of Kleenax, because the scene where Pamela returns the magic bag to Santa is a tear-jerker every time.
2. A Christmas Carol (1951)(At least one version of the most refilmed Christmas story in history must be on everyones list and this one's a doozy. The definate choice as best of the lot. Alister Sim plays Scrooge like no other actor: past, present or future. The acting, directing and cinematography are above excellent and the groovy special effects were far ahead of their time. Words cannot descibe the magic this film produces. Just rent it and get the chestnuts ready!
1. Die Hard (a heartfelt story that takes place on Christmas Eve about a hardworking NYC cop that's invited to his wife's business' Christmas party and ends up giving her and her co-workers the best Christmas gift ever when he saves their lives from deadly terrorist who are planning to overtake their new high rise building and kill them all. As John McClain, Bruce Willis outwits the sophisticated European criminals with his big city street smarts and caps them off one by one. An instant holiday classic that the whole family can sit by the fireplace and view while sipping the egg nog.)
Hope this helps a little when you're at the video store