Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Favorite Christmas Movies

Every year there is a new holiday movie (or two or three). I enjoy these movies, but not all of them. I've been thinking this week about the ones I like, and the ones I don't, and why... I guess it would be fair to say that I'm a movie snob to some degree--I can be hard to impress (with my theatre/acting training background and all that), but really it's not about the quality of the acting so much as the quality of the message.

I LIKE
  1. Scrooge (with Albert Finney). It's an awesome rendition of "A Christmas Carol" in fact, it's the first version of that story that I ever liked. I also happen to enjoy all the songs--so far as I can recall, I like every single one. That's pretty rare for me!
  2. The Santa Clause. It's cute, it's fun, and it puts the magic in Christmas. The sequels are pretty silly, but I really like the original one.
  3. It's a Wonderful Life. It's a little bit cheesy, but such a good message...and frankly it's become a piece of our culture's history, so you need to see it if you want to be culturally literate.
  4. Miracle on 34th Street (the old black & white one...I've never seen the new one, so I can't say if it's any good or not) Answers some age-old questions about Kris Kringle (yes, he speaks Danish), Let's just say, "I believe!"
  5. Dr Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the old animated one of course) How could anyone not love Boris Karloff's singing and the Dr's original art?!
  6. Muppet Christmas Carol. Because Kermit Cratchet sings the coolest syncopated song ever, and it's funny when the little peons in Scrooge's office bust out a luau.
I DON'T LIKE
(as in, I will go to some length to avoid seeing it)
  1. A Charlie Brown Christmas. This is because I don't like Charlie Brown. I think he's depressing
  2. A Christmas Story. Can we just say dysfunctional family? How can this be considered a classic? Again, depressing.
  3. The Grinch (Jim Carrey). Rude, crude, and just really really pathetic. I was excitedly hoping for something that would live up to the first movie...this didn't live up to anything.
  4. White Christmas. I was really really bored
  5. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (the stop-animation one with Burl Ives). Um, I just think it's annoying from one end to the other.
  6. The Nightmare Before Christmas. I didn't even make it to the end. Dark, depressing, creepy...oh wait, it was Tim Burton. No wonder I hated it.
  7. Elf. I had hoped it would be nice--the premise was cute...but EWWWWW. I should know better than to think that Will Farrell would make a clean or quality movie.

What Christmas movies do you love?
Which ones do you not love?
Why?

I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but those are the first ones I thought of (I reserve the right to edit the list a bit if someone comments about a movie I have strong feelings about!!)
This year I want to see Fred Claus. I'm prepared for it to be pretty dumb, but ya always gotta see the new one, you know?

3 comments:

Brasileira said...

It's not really a Christmas movie, but it does start out at Christmas. "While You Were Sleeping" is one of my absolute favorites and I choose to watch it every Christmas season.

Brooke said...

Hmm... I like
-A Charlie Brown Christmas (it's a staple, and Linus is my fave)
-A Christmas Story (a total crack-up in my opinion!!)
-A Christmas Carol w/ George C. Scott
-Miracle on 34th Street (the orignial)
-It's a Wonderful Life
-How the Grinch Stole Christmas (an all time favorite, and I think I have every word memorized)
-Scrooge (though I haven't seen it in a while)

I don't like
-The Santa Clause (that kid is SO whiney, and I have 3 whiney kids... I don't need to listen to any more!)
-Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (annoying, even as a kid)
-The Grinch (turned it off 1/2 way through)
-Polar Express (I just couldn't get into it)
-most Christmas movies!! The new ones all seem dumb and crude.

Anonymous said...

(This is Leah!) One of my favorite movies has to be A Muppet Family Christmas!

It's a TV movie from about 1987. Doc and Sprocket are trying to enjoy a nice Christmas renting Fozzie's mother's house (she's trying to go on vacation). Kermit & co end up crashing... except Miss Piggy, who's in danger of being stuck in the snow!

The Sesame Street crew come by and even the Fraggles make an appearance. There's singing and penguins and joke-telling snowmen. Oh, the good times.

Sadly, you can't get the full version on DVD for some reason. Thank goodness my family taped it off of TV 20 years back!

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