THE NICE LIST
'Elf'
I remember going to see this in the theater the day it came out in 2003. Buddy (Will Ferrell), a human who was raised as an elf at the North Pole, goes on a journey to New York City in search of his true identity. A hilarious movie from start to finish, full of holiday cheer. This and the 'Anchorman' movies still remain my favorite Will Ferrell movies.
I remember going to see this in the theater the day it came out in 2003. Buddy (Will Ferrell), a human who was raised as an elf at the North Pole, goes on a journey to New York City in search of his true identity. A hilarious movie from start to finish, full of holiday cheer. This and the 'Anchorman' movies still remain my favorite Will Ferrell movies.
'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation'
In the third installment of National Lampoon's 'Vacation' series, the Griswold family's plans for a big family Christmas predictably turn into a big disaster. Another Christmas movie that is hilarious from start to finish.
'A Charlie Brown Christmas'
Okay, it's not exactly a full length movie, but let's face it: It's not Christmas without having watched 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'. Repelled by the commercialism he sees around him, Charlie Brown tries to find the true meaning of Christmas. It's short, simple, and to the point. And it's pretty funny.
What?? That's not a Christmas movie!!!! Um...yes it is. It's as much a Christmas movie as any of these other movies...much like how 'Die Hard 2', 'Batman Returns', 'Iron Man 3', 'Lethal Weapon' and 'Gremlins' are also Christmas movies. Anyway, 'Die Hard' is the first and still the best in this series. NYPD officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) tries to save wife Holly Gennaro (Bonnie Bedelia) and several others, taken hostage by German terrorist Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles. Simply put, this movie is AWESOME!! Full of intense action, hilarious one liners, a great villain...it's a lot of fun. Yippey-ki-yay.....you know the rest.
From 'The Year Without A Santa Claus', 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town', 'Rudolph's Shiny New Year', 'Rudolph & Frosty's Christmas In July' and many more, it's just not the Christmas season without having flipped on ABC Family to watch at least some of these. Pure holiday fun.
What?? That's a chick flick!!! BOO!!!!! You suck! Zero Stars. Yes, I liked this movie. Quite a bit actually. So what? It's now on Netflix but I rented it from Redbox last year because I had a free Redbox rental and there wasn't much else that I wanted to watch at that particular Redbox stand that I wanted to rent. It's an ensemble romantic comedy set around the holidays in London that has a ridiculous amount of interweaving storylines:
- Aging rock and roll legend Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) records a Christmas variation of the hit song 'Love Is All Around' and it soon becomes number 1. But this success still makes Mack feel empty and alone and his manager (Gregor Fisher) tries to cheer him up.
- Juliet (Keira Knightley) and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are recently married, but Peter's best friend Mark (Andrew Lincoln) has been acting strange around them.
- Jamie (Colin Firth), a writer, discovers that his girlfriend had been cheating on him with his brother. Devastated, he retreats to a cottage in France where he soon takes a liking to his Portuguese housekeeper Aurelia (Lucia Moniz), who only speaks in her native tongue.
- Harry (Alan Rickman) is the managing director of a design agency who starts to take a liking to his new secretary Mia (Heike Makatsch) unbeknownst to his wife Karen (Emma Thompson) and children. Also features Rowan Atkinson as a jewelry store worker.
- David (Hugh Grant) is the new Prime Minister of Great Britain. He soon starts to take a liking to Natalie (Martine McCutcheon), a member of his house hold staff. Also features Billy Bob Thornton as the President of the United States of America.
- Daniel (Liam Neeson) and his stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster) are mourning the loss of their wife and mother. Sam soon starts to like an American classmate of his.
- Sarah (Laura Linney) is in love with her company's creative director Karl (Rodrigo Santoro). She also has to help with her brother Michael (Michael Fitzgerald), who is in a mental institution.
- After failing to woo any British women, Colin (Kris Marshall) informs his friend Tony (Abdul Salis) that he intends on going to America to find love, convinced that his Britishness will be a huge asset to him.
- John (Martin Freeman) and Judy (Joanna Page) are body doubles for...well....an 'adult' movie. They are surprisingly comfortable on set, but off set they are timid and shy but soon start to develop a relationship.
Lots of things going on and it is quite interesting how all of these story lines interweave with each other. It's funny, it's sweet, it's just all around a very good movie.
THE NAUGHTY LIST
With their daughter away, Luther and Nora Krank (Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis) decide to skip Christmas altogether much to the chagrin of their friends and neighbors. But when their daughter Blair (Julie Gonzalo) decides to come home, this causes an uproar when they have to celebrate the holidays at the last minute. Based on the novel 'Skipping Christmas' by John Grisham, but was forced to change it's title due to the similar sounding 'Surviving Christmas', which starred Ben Affleck and the late James Gandolfini and was released two months earlier (and was actually out on DVD by the time 'Kranks' was released). I went to see this with my brother and a friend and I remember using a free movie pass to go see it. It's only 98 minutes, but it felt a lot longer than that. Simply put, it just wasn't funny. And nothing's worse than a comedy that isn't funny....okay I can think of a lot of other things that are worse but that's not the point.
Based on the classic book by Chris Van Allsburg, a doubting boy boards a magical train on Christmas Eve that's headed to the North Pole and Santa Claus' home. This is the first of director Robert Zemecki's three feature films entirely made from motion capture performances (the others being 'Beowulf' and 'Disney's A Christmas Carol'). Tom Hanks takes on six roles on this movie. I liked the book, and my 3rd grade class even did this as a play (I played one of the children on the Polar Express). In adapting such a short book into a full length feature film, lots of other characters and sideplots were added, and to be honest it all felt like needless padding. I didn't like it at all.
'Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer & the Island of Misfit Toys'
Technically a 'sequel' to the original Rankin/Bass special 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' and the animated movie 'Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer: The Movie', but is mostly a rehash of the former with the Island of Misfit toys storyline. It tries it's hardest, but in trying to emulate the animation of the original film but with computer animation it just comes off as cheap and poorly animated. And that's a huge distraction. Pointless and unnecessary.
DISHONORABLE MENTION
Not a Christmas movie, but a Hanukkah movie. This deserves eight large truckloads full of coal, delivered on each of the eight nights of Hanukkah. Davey Stone (voice of Adam Sandler), an alcoholic with a criminal record, is sentenced to community service under the supervision of an elderly referee (also voiced by Adam Sandler). Davey is then faced with trying to reform and abandon his bad habits. This was on Netflix and I randomly decided to watch it. I HATED THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It tries ridiculously hard to be funny and fails miserably. Granted, humor is subjective and I'm sure there are plenty of people who like this movie....I'm just not one them.........
So, what are some Christmas movies you like to watch this time of year?
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