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Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: AlohaDawg on December 05, 2005, 06:27:57 pm
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Christmas Themed or set at Christmas Time, I love watching Christmas movies at Christmas Time.
Here're some favorites (in no special order). What are yours? (New Year's/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Solstice movies count too)
The Desk Set (Tracey/Hepburn, very funny)
A Christmas Story (Why oh why didn't Peter Billingsley get an Oscar?)
Die Hard
Love Actually (thought I would hate it)
The Santa Clause
The Santa Clause II
Elf
It's a Wonderful Life (of course)
The Preacher's Wife
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Scrooged
Home for the Holidays (Thanksgiving movie, technically, but still hilarious)
Planes Trains and Automobiles (ditto)
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It's family tradition to get a big plate of cheese and crackers and sausage and watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on Christmas Eve. I look forward to that more than the holiday itself.
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It's family tradition to get a big plate of cheese and crackers and sausage and watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on Christmas Eve. I look forward to that more than the holiday itself.
I just get all nostalgic for when they could still say "fuck" in PG-13 movies.
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My mother makes the whole family watch Home for the Holidays. Every. Single. Year.
I think because she identifies with the protagonist and her family. A lot. All it does is make me sad about thanksgiving.
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We don't really have a "holiday movie," but we'll usually turn on the Christmas Story marathon for a while: usually not long enough to actually watch the movie, but long enough for appropriate snippets.
The real "holiday film" tradition in my house is going out to the movies on Christmas Day, after the presentstravaganza. Sometimes this results in amusement (the recent trend of epic fantasy movies coming out in December has helped), and sometimes it results in seeing miserable films just to keep the tradition alive. ("Oh, c'mon, [V] -- 'Meet the Fockers' can't be that bad, right?" Yes, Mom. Yes it can be that bad.)
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Gotta love the Christmas Story marathon. It's now firmly embedded as a Christmas Eve tradition that I'll stay up way late assembling gifts, wrapping presents, cooking for Christmas breakfast or dinner, or doing last minute housecleaning with A Christmas Story on in the background. Over and Over and Over.
You'll put your eye out, kid.
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We have the DVD. We kicked off our Holiday Season watching it last night.
We got our tree but it's out in the garage. I rearranged the living room and we set up our little Bethlehem Village.
Our Nativity goes under out tree. Every year it features a live cat, roughtly twice it's size, leering over it. We usually get pictures.
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Sometimes this results in amusement (the recent trend of epic fantasy movies coming out in December has helped), and sometimes it results in seeing miserable films just to keep the tradition alive. ("Oh, c'mon, [V] -- 'Meet the Fockers' can't be that bad, right?" Yes, Mom. Yes it can be that bad.)
Jeez, I watched that with my Dad last year because the rest of our family was out of town. We totally connect and have an awesome time going out to movies together. But "Meet the Fockers" was so awkward. Dustin Hoffman vis-a-vis Barbara Streisand with whipped cream? Eeeeeew! And that sexual housekeeper scene was totally pointless and weird. Was this supposed to be "the sex comedy for the whole family"? Sorry, I've said too much. I don't want to ruin the Holidays.
I enjoy watching the Rudolph claymation every year. Something about the way the characters swing hammers and pick axes always takes me back. Not to mention, "I'm cuuuuuuuuute!"
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National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation period. Me and my grandfather and my aunt and uncle oh hell everone ends up in the living room watching this movie every year! I love this movie and it will never get old. My girlfriend and I ussually watch Airplane during the holidays but thats not a christmas movie, but like Christmas Vacation it will never get old.
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Christmas Vacation is a tradition in our family, but as it's one we tend to watch during the summer too, I'm pretty fuck*ng sick of it.
I just get all nostalgic for when they could still say "fuck" in PG-13 movies.
That might be the best line in the movie, too. But speaking of the MPAA rating system, and I may be wrong, isn't The Right Stuff PG? And didn't it feature "fuck" in one form or another at least twice? I'll never get the system. And you still hear it in PG-13 movies, I think. Anchorman, for example.
Two of my favorite movies ever are A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life. I don't watch them all the time or anything, but I don't only watch them in December, either. I don't like many other Christmas movies.
I do, however, love a lot of the animated shorter movies around Christmas. The Peanuts one, the Grinch (again, the animated short), and the claymation ones. Frosty, too. I think there are some newer ones, but the older ones are the best. For some reason, even though I don't even decorate from Christmas (though I'm no Scrooge), I love those little movies.
As my Dad has traditionally started playing Christmas Music on November 1st, I'm not a huge fan of most of it. BBC 3 will be playing all Bach, all the time, this year (starting sometime in mid-December, I believe), and I tend to listen to a lot of Bach anyway, especially during the holidays for some reason, so that will be nice. I also like some of the stuff recorded by Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby--those guys. Other than that, Christmas music kind of puts me in a bad mood.
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The only holiday movies I've ever been able to tolerate were the Rankin-Bass stop motion ones, as well as a select few animated ones.
I over-empathize with characters in dramas in general, so any Christmas movies that feature Terrible or Embarrassing moments just make me cringe too much to enjoy the Funny Twist Ending. Come to think of it, this is why I don't like most sitcoms... or romantic comedies... or regular comedies... or Fawlty Towers (despite my otherwise overwhelming love of John Cleese). In fact, I've never made it all the way through A Christmas Story in one sitting because I feel so terrible for that kid.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas is beautiful, though. Dr. Seuss wrote an amazing story, then Chuck Jones got to play around in the world (but didn't change the story). Wonderful, wonderful stuff.
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My girlfriend has set up the DVR to record just about every damn Christmas movie coming on TV in the next few weeks.
I hate Christmas enough as it is, but if I start losing MythBusters episodes because of Reindeer Go Wild - Volume 2 Cancun, I'm gonna start throwing things.
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I'll be honest with you guys. I can't stand A Christmas Story.
I'm sorry.
so sorry
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I'll be honest with you guys. I can't stand A Christmas Story.
I'm sorry.
so sorry
Agreed. Except I'm not sorry.
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It's family tradition to get a big plate of cheese and crackers and sausage and watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on Christmas Eve. I look forward to that more than the holiday itself.
THANK GOD WE'RE NOT THE ONLY ONES.
I think it's a sign that your family has totally given up on being anything other than totally disfunctional when your Christmas tradition is watching Clark Griswold say, "Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Kiss my ass. Kiss his ass. Kiss your own ass. Happy Kwanzaa."
Where do you think you're going? Nobody's leaving. Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We're all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fuck*ng Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse.
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I watch The Nightmare Before Christmas every xmas and halloween actually.. sort of a personal tradition I suppose.
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Where do you think you're going? Nobody's leaving. Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We're all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fuck*ng Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse.
That Clark Griswold is a funny mother fucker. However, I saw Vegas Vacation (or part of it) the other day and the charm had worn off by whatever volume that was.
~Paul
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I've always been a big fan of The Ref. I also finally came to make peace with It's A Wonderful Life in the past few years. And various renditions of A Christmas Carol are good with me (although I have preference for the CBS George C. Scott one and the Muppets one).
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation I haven't seen enough.
Besides that, many animated specials and Blackadder's Christmas Carol is the good stuff.
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Bozack before reading that fine print I knew exactly what it was and I knew it line for line. Is that a bad thing? God bless America!
Also I've never seen "It's a Wonderful Life" is it a wonderful movie?
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Also I've never seen "It's a Wonderful Life" is it a wonderful movie?
It's a life afirming story beautifully told. Jimmy Stewart at his best (and that's saying a lot).
~Paul
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I think "Bad Santa" is going to make its way into my yearly viewing along with the Rankin/Bass production of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas."
I never bothered getting the A Christmas Story DVD because I watch the marathon about 8 times every year (I mean the entire movie about that many times) as it's always on in the background here. God bless you, TBS.
I have to say, though, my favourite holiday film is still "Die Hard."
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i really think the charlie brown christmas is the pinnacle of notstalgic christmas entertainment.
and when i hear that fuck*ng car commercial rape the speacial place in my heart by molesting that wonderful song, SMASH SMASH SMASH.
fuckers.
i also really liked the island of misfit toys one, because, hey, dentist.
the movie with the kid who wants the bb gun that apparently every person except me has seen all of? only seen parts of it. eh.
saw part of elf the other weekend at a place that had cable and thought i should rent it as it looks fun and happy.
christmas movies should have happy endings.
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i also really liked the island of misfit toys one, because, hey, dentist.
Yeah! That one kicks ass!
the movie with the kid who wants the bb gun that apparently every person except me has seen all of? only seen parts of it. eh.
That would be A Christmas Story.
christmas movies should have happy endings.
I agree totally. My cousins were watching a movie with Michael Keaton last night, where he dies and turns into a snowman! How could that possibly be good!?!?
Oh, and I also loved Bad Santa, Jough. Even that had a happy ending.
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A Christmas story was pretty good. But I don't think I could watch it ever year, or even every other year. It's not that good. But the part in the Chinese restaurant...oh hahah man thats good. "Deck the harrs wif barrs of harry, Far Ra Ra Ra Ra, Ra Ra Ra Ra!" Stereotypes crack me up.
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Well, considering the SO bought me this (http://cgi.ebay.ca/Charlie-Brown-Pathetic-Christmas-Tree-Peanuts_W0QQitemZ6586190346QQcategoryZ33792QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)for Christmas last year, you know what I'll be watching tonight. The tree comes in a really awful plastic box, and it's really the antithesis of the movies' message. As my SO said as I opened it "It negates itself by existing!"
Also, I enjoy Edward Scissorhands every Christmas as well.
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Well, considering the SO bought me this (http://cgi.ebay.ca/Charlie-Brown-Pathetic-Christmas-Tree-Peanuts_W0QQitemZ6586190346QQcategoryZ33792QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)for Christmas last year, you know what I'll be watching tonight. The tree comes in a really awful plastic box, and it's really the antithesis of the movies' message. As my SO said as I opened it "It negates itself by existing!"
Wow. That is... one hell of an object.
I do love a quote from the eBay page: "The bendable branches allow you to make it look just how you want, super pathetic or just kind of pathetic." You can customize the patheticness levels of your fake plastic tree! That wears me out.
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The e-bay price is more than twice the original purchase price of 24.99 too...the tree is unavailable from the distributor.
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My dad's side of the family always watches The Godfather. This tradition goes back to the late 70's or early 80's when my grandparents got a VCR for Christmas. This was (so I'm told) when blank Betamax tapes were like $50 each or something stupid and the VCR itself was like an XBOX wrapped in a TiVo with special DVD recording technology. I remember that it had a "remote" control, which was attached to the VCR itself by a cord that was maybe 12 feet long.
The first movie they got was The Godfather (maybe taped off of HBO?) and they watched it on Christmas Day. We've kept that one going at the family celebration every year since I can remember.
My favorite holiday movie is also my favorite overall movie, Die Hard. People argue with me that it's not a holiday film. Those people are assholes, just like the people who say "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues and Kristy MacColl is not a Christmas song. You cannot play that song eleven months out of the year. It just isn't proper.
"Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho."
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just like the people who say "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues and Kristy MacColl is not a Christmas song. You cannot play that song eleven months out of the year. It just isn't proper.
I listened to that song pretty much 12 months out of the year when it appeared on Bozacks mixtape.
F'n awesome.
~Paul
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I listened to that song pretty much 12 months out of the year when it appeared on Bozacks mixtape.
F'n awesome.
~Paul
I have a mixCD from Bozack that has a c*ck drawn over the whole thing and then has written in the corner "this means a CD from [Bozack's real name]." But then that got stolen with my whole binder of CDs so someone else somewhere (probably my old manager?) can now learn to appreciate it.
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Wombat here, out of touch with popular culture as usual:
1. Intrigued, I managed to find that Pogues song on-line to listen to, unassisted. Googling around reminded me that whenever I hear a Pogues song, I feel like I need someone to explain them to me. Like one site calls them 'folk-punk'. I don't understand why they aren't just 'folk'. I used to listen to a lot of music called 'folk' and it was pretty much just like this. Can anyone help?
Also their site says that there is a whole BBC documentary about that song.
2. Edward Scissorhands. Is this something I should see? I like movies about weird stuff. I hate movies about people's feelings. The ads for this always made it seem like it was about the feelings of weird people, so I could never decide.
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...one site calls them 'folk-punk'. I don't understand why they aren't just 'folk'. I used to listen to a lot of music called 'folk' and it was pretty much just like this. Can anyone help?
Shane MacGowan drinks. A LOT. Also, he has very few teeth.
Once more unto the wiki-
In an article written by MacGowan's then girlfriend Victoria Clarke [1], it was claimed that Shane had further damaged his teeth by eating a copy of the Beach Boys 'Greatest Hits vol. 3' LP whilst under the influence of LSD.
Edward Scissorhands. Is this something I should see? I like movies about weird stuff. I hate movies about people's feelings. The ads for this always made it seem like it was about the feelings of weird people, so I could never decide.
I got a lot more weirdness out of it than I got feelings. Yeah, there was some sappy crap, but it's worth it to get to the shrubbery.
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Shane MacGowan drinks. A LOT. Also, he has very few teeth.
Hmm, so it's a lifestyle thing? If he was a vegetarian carrot-juice-imbiber instead of a drunken LP-eater, it'd be folk? I see.
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Shane MacGowan drinks. A LOT. Also, he has very few teeth.
Hmm, so it's a lifestyle thing? If he was a vegetarian carrot-juice-imbiber instead of a drunken LP-eater, it'd be folk? I see.
Unless he was a militant vegan about it. That's so fuck*ng punk.
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The e-bay price is more than twice the original purchase price of 24.99 too...the tree is unavailable from the distributor.
Ah yes, my SO assured me he only spent $25 on it - what the page fails to mention is that the tree also comes with Linus' blankie to wrap around the base.