Opinion: Top Christmas Movies
Posted by Matthew Alexander (matthew@filmschoolrejects.com) on December 24, 2006
No holiday can compare to Halloween when it comes to the silver screen. Even if a movie is not specifically made with Halloween in mind, any horror movie can easily be incorporated into the celebration. Christmas is a little different. Though there may be more movies which are explicitly Christmas, there really is no genre that can automatically be attributed to it. Furthermore, most Christmas movies wind up as trite and offensively humorless little comedies starring Tim Allen.
In picking the best Christmas movies of all time, a critic has very little to wade through. However, this is counterbalanced by the difficulty one has in coming up with Christmas movies in the first place. My own list does not exceed three*.
A good, but not great, comedy, starring Chevy Chase. One has to tip one’s hat to anyone who can make a Christmas comedy that isn’t some sort of crime against humanity.
2) Die Hard
It happens during Christmas and there is a mention of Santa Claus so we may include it on the list so we have at least three movies. Die Hard is one of the best pure action movies ever made.
Of the dozens of film/cartoon versions of the Dickens classic, the one with George C. Scott stands head, shoulder, breasts and belly button above the rest. The music, the setting, the acting… everything about this film is wonderful.
But in my opinion, no discussion of Christmas movies would be complete without some mention of the wretchedly awful crap that we so often have to put up with. And I’m not talking about Home Alone, a poor but inoffensive attempt to spread holiday cheer. I’m talking about the ones that are so bad and/or so misguided that they verge on blasphemous.
Of all the odious junk that preys on our love for Christmas, there are two items that stand out. The first is any Christmas movie starring Tim Allen. I have nothing against the man other than his appearance in the second most detestable Christmas movie of all time, Christmas with the Kranks, as well as a handful of other ill conceived Yule Tide endeavors. Anyone who has seen Christmas with the Kranks – and mercifully I have not, can tell you just how terrible it is. It is so bad that I didn’t even need to see it to comment on it. The trailer was more than capable of conveying the abject dreadfulness.
The second item, and the all time most horrendous excuse for a Christmas movie ever, not only ranks high in the offensively awful category, it also manages to wantonly defile a Dr. Seuss classic. I’m talking about How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the Jim Carrey vehicle that features a terribly unfunny Mr. Carey doing improvisation, slow motion shots of the Grinch running away from explosions and, in a movie that one supposes children will be watching, a wife swapping party! This one got me blood boilin’!
So the message is clear: Hollywood has produced a paucity of quality Christmas movies, at least in recent years. Perhaps they can learn from their mistakes and concentrate a bit more on this holiday in the future.
*I must admit to either having not seen, or seen so long ago I barely remember them, the Christmas classics of yesteryear. Any subjective list like this must of necessity be limited by the author’s experience.
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