 Once again, this is the classic Charles Dickens tale based on a book from the 19th century (1843 to be exact). This time, however, it's a more serious take on the concept as opposed to the one featuring Muppets.
Scrooge (Alastair Sim) is a greedy old miser of a man with no Christmas spirit. He treats the poor with little to no respect, and is rather ignorant to the concepts of family and friends and loved ones visiting over the holidays. On Christmas Eve, he returns home to find the ghost of his old parnter, Jacob Marley (Michael Hordern), who was just as bad as he was in his life. He had passed seven years ago from that night, and came to warn Scrooge that if he didn't change his ways, he'd be doomed to suffer a fate worse than his. In order to achieve his salvation, however, Scrooge has to be visited by three spirits throughout the night; the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. This movie is still quite an amazing film by today's standards. Keeping in mind that this was 1951, some of the special effects are pretty impressive. Being that is takes place in the 19th Century, it can't really get too dated either, as it hold up as a great telling of a classic story from a classic author who was seemingly almost as famous as Shakespeare. There have been so many remakes of this story, it's kind of insane. But to this day, I still claim this version to be the Golden Standard for the story's adaptation, and that's for several different reasons, not the least of which being that this is by far the best morning-after scene from any adaptaition of the story. The morning after scene, for those who are familiar, is essentially the end scene where Scrooge is saved, and he wakes up Christmas morning all bright and chipper, ready to do good. Apologies if that's a spoiler for anyone, but I do feel like the story is well-known enough to get away with that. Even saying it, you still have to see it to fully appreciate it. Anyway, Alastair Sim absolutely nails it here. It's enough to make one both laugh out loud and shed a few tears of joy. The atmosphere throughout the film is just so dark otherwise that when it happens, it's such a change that it warms the viewer's heart right up. As far as the classics go, this one should be on everyone's list for next year if they haven't ever seen it before. Give it time to pull you in, but I'd say one would be pretty impressed when it's all said and done. Still a personal fave for every year, and still the best Morning After scene compared to at least 8 or 9 different versions. 5/5
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 Here we have our lovable Muppets telling the classic Christmas story, based on the book by Charles Dickens. My love for the Muppets combined with my love for Christmas really makes this one an annual watch, and it practically has been since it's original release in 1992.
There are few full-fledged family films that encapsulate the true spirit of Christmas like this film. The story is essentially a retelling of the famous Charles Dickens book; 'A Christmas Carol', but it's done with Muppets, and Gonzo actually portrays Charles Dickens in a 19th Century London setting. If you're unfamiliar with the story, in short, an old grouch of a man named Ebenezer Scrooge (Michael Caine, here) is visited by several spirits one Christmas Eve night to show him that if he doesn't change his ways, he will be made to suffer in the afterlife. A scary enough concept, sure, but the story is, and has been a Christmas classic for decades. There's about a million different versions of it out there. Anyway, back to the point. This film is full of warmth and heart, and will seldom fail to get you in the mood for the holiday. The songs are probably the highest praise, as some of them have become traditional songs to add to that Christmas playlist of mine. 'Scrooge', 'One More Sleep 'Til Christmas', and 'It Feels Like Christmas' are my personal favourites. Watching this one annually gives you quite an appreciation for the music. Aside from that, the film combines a traditional Christmas tale with the childlike wonder of those lovable Muppets. It's really funny, it's cute, it's magical, and it is just loaded with that Christmas atmosphere that warms the heart. Certainly, a high recommendation for a Christmas move the whole family can enjoy! 4/5  Whether or not you enjoy this movie might end up having more to do with whether or not you mind that the trailer is completely misleading. Like... COMPLETELY misleading. With that said, the surprises the film holds are really quite genuine, and I didn't see it taking the turn that it did; a turn which I still can't quite figure out if I like or not. Although this turn is rather clever, I feel like I'd have liked to have seen what I expected. Anyway, I can't very well talk about what the movie is ACTUALLY about without spoiling that twist, so if you haven't seen it and care, check it out before reading on. If you have seen it, or don't care either way, go nuts. This is your spoiler alert.
Here we have a boy named Lucas (Levi Miller) who, despite his looking old enough to take care of himself (seriously, he was born in September, 2002, making him 15 by the time this was released) , still has a babysitter named Ashley (Olivia DeJong). He takes a liking to her, and tries rather creepily and desperately to get with her while she's babysitting him around the holidays. He and his best friend, Garrett (Ed Oxenbould) even go so far as to stage a break-in, which is the pinpoint moment that the film makes it's little twist. Once they're caught, Lucas kinda just has enough of being treated like a little kid and goes off the freakin' deep end. So, by the trailer, we're pretty well convinced that Luke, Ashley and Garrett are defending the house 'Home Alone' style, but with real consequences, which WOULD make for a pretty over the top comedic blood-bath that would never allow us to see 'Home Alone' in the same way again. But instead, it just turns into a hostage movie, with Lucas of all people at the wheel. Now, as disappointing as that was, I have to admit that Miller's performance here is nothing short of awesome. If I were to draw a comparison, I'd have to say that a LOT of his inspiration had to come from Alex from 'A Clockwork Orange'. If something goes wrong, he loses his shit, but if something goes his way, he embraces the moment with such satisfaction. The kid's an unlikable psycho, but definitely makes a great movie villain, and I'd say his performance is what stands out the most here. You can just tell he's having a ton of fun with it. Unfortunately, however, the film does stray from something that could have been fun and original and turns it into 'The Strangers' or 'The Purge' with similar situations. It also reminded me a lot of a reverse-'Babysitter' (the movie I reviewed around Halloween) with the kid being the psycho instead of the sitter. In that whole respect, it was relatively dull, but to it's credit, it maintained a bit of unpredictability as far as character fates go. It's a passable, fun little horror movie for the holidays that could be compared to something like 'Black Christmas', but much less scary (seriously, is there a creepier stalker than Billy's big stupid eyeball?) If you're into that sort of thing, give it a look. If not, stick with your family favorites and leave this kind of thing for Halloween. 3/5  If you're like me, you love 'A Christmas Story'. It's boasts all the magic and joy of Christmas in the 1950s, communicates with children as well as adults, and it's oh so quotable. It's so good that it's become a beloved family Christmas classic through the years... But here's Bob Clark's other Christmas movie.
The premise might sound kinda familiar. A creepy guy returns to his childhood home on Christmas Eve. The house has since become a sorority, so he ends up killing them off one by one. Did I also mention he was an escaped maniac? Didn't I just review this movie back in October? And didn't it take place on a different holiday? But there's a catch... THIS movie was released four years earlier than 'Halloween'. By today's standards, one could easily see this one as being "dated". I admit that since I had seen this kind of thing several times before, the overall film wasn't that fantastic to me. But I have to give credit where it's due as well. 'Black Christmas' has seemingly become a sort of cult horror classic over the years, and rightfully so. It's strange to think that 'Halloween' got so much attention when 'Black Christmas' was already established, and it's practically the same movie. In fact, the killer in 'Black Christmas' IS creepier than Michael Myers, if you ask me. That's "creepier", not "more threatening". He makes obscene phone calls all through the movie to the sorority and the voices coming out of the phone will send shivers down your spine. It was kinda like hearing Regan on 'The Exorcist' for the first time. But aside from the killer being one of the creepiest horror villains I've probably ever seen (just the idea of him lurking in the shadows... I mean, look at his eye. See his eye up in the picture?) I can only imagine how freaky this movie must be to a lot of women. It's about a creepy stalker man who dwells in your attic and is making obscene phonecalls to you from inside the house. Hey that's another thing, by the way. The famous trope "the call is coming from inside the house" is totally used here, but is often credited as having it's first real appearance in 'When as Stranger Calls' (1979). So, although this isn't what one would call a traditional Christmas movie in any sense, one must admire the fact that the director of 'A Christmas Story' once directed a film that predates 'Halloween' and 'When a Stranger Calls' but uses everything that made them so good. Granted, it's entirely possible that in 1974 people weren't ready for the slasher genre quite yet. Mainly because by then 'The Exorcist' was out, scaring the living hell out of people. But I would definitely say that as a creepy horror movie, and NOT a Christmas movie, 'Black Christmas' does a damn good job with it's overall atmosphere. In a weird way, I'd personally recommend it to true fans of horror, if for nothing else, the fact that it came before a lot of what made the slasher genre famous. 3/5  When I first saw the trailer for this, I was pretty convinced that this could be as good as last year's 'The Night Before'. It was a Christmas movie combined with a party movie, and it looked like it could be fun. But then, I watched it.
The plot centers on the threat of a closing branch of a company called Zenotek. Failing to meet their quarterly quota, Intermediate CEO, Carol Vanstone (Jennifer Aniston) threatens to shut them down. But her brother, Clay (TJ Miller) and his friend Josh (Jason Bateman) propose a chance at partnering with a man named Walter Davis (Courtney B Vance); one of the city's big financial giants. If it can be done, the branch can be saved. The plan Josh and Clay end up coming up with is to show Walter a good time at their office Christmas party. Surely, if they show him the time of his life, he'll want to partner with them, thus saving the company. So, overall, the film is just kinda forgettable. It's not without a few giggles, but nothing here was really laugh-out-loud funny to me. In comparison to something like 'The Night Before', at least that had Seth Rogen tripping out through the whole movie and reacting to various things, plus the character of Mr. Green. Like them or hate them, they each made their part very memorable. This had nothing that stuck out like that, and it was essentially just a party movie with a "save the rec center" plot to it. I thought it was interesting considering how raunchy this got in some parts that there was no shock value to any of it for me. I guess 'Project X' set the bar pretty high for that sort of thing in a party movie. It's strange, I like a good party movie, and it's not really like this was extremely lacking, but there was SOMETHING missing here for me. I can't quite put my finger on it. If I had to guess, it probably has something to do with a complete lack of character development. The film is basically just two guys and a mean older sister, and we don't end up knowing a whole hell of a lot about them. Or what about some of the side characters. Rob Corddry is in it here and there, but he's such an after thought. I mean, what's his story at all? We just know he works there with them. It takes away from really caring much about how it all ends. But there's some side story stuff too. There's a desperate loser who brings a prostitute to the party, and a kindly mother of one who can't find the right man. They're the only two side stories going on, so I'll give you three guesses as to what happens with all of that. Another thing is that most of the party ideas utilized here have either been done before, or they're just not all that special. You've got the ice luge, you've got the Slip n Slide, and at one point TJ Miller hands out gifts dressed as Santa... but, a few bonus points for making Santa's chair the Throne of Swords from 'Game of Thrones'. Also not particularly original, but... still awesome. In the end, I probably wouldn't add this to my list of favourite party movies. Which is a shame, because when it comes to that category, I don't tend to be too hard to please. 2/5  Back around Christmastime of 2011, this title was released, and it's already become a sort of Christmas classic for many. Myself, included!
One Christmas Eve, Santa, AKA Malcolm (Jim Broadbent) has an excellent 70th year run with the help of his army of tactical elves, and son, Steve (Hugh Laurie) at the North Pole command center. However, upon cleanup, an elf named Bryony (Ashley Jenson) finds that one gift was undelivered. Finding this out, Santa's other son, Arthur (James McAvoy) gets worried about the little girl not getting her present on Christmas morning while others seem to brush it off, basically saying it sucks, but she can get it delivered in a couple of days. Arthur, however, knows that the Christmas magic would be lost for her that way. Arthur's Grandsanta (Bill Nighy) sympathizes with Arthur, and decides to help him out, and get the little girl's present to her before Christmas morning. There's so many cool and interesting things about this movie. Being 2011, I reviewed it on my old site, and claimed it to be an "instant Christmas classic". Five years later, I'm happy to say that it still totally holds up. For starters, I love that they come relatively close to making the whole Santa concept be plausible with new ideas. They change the sleigh into a gigantic, ID4-sized ship that can change it's camouflage. As mentioned before, Santa has a massive crew of tactical elves that dive into these houses, delivering the presents with some swift action. There's even tactics for distracting "wakers" so that they don't see Santa or the elves. Secondly, it's good to see that the film takes breaks from it's overall humour to be kinda deep at points, injecting us with a bit of that Christmas magic we remember from our childhood. Some of the conversations in it can tug at the heartstrings a little bit, but without being too sappy. Third, and once again, the overall animation and settings for the film are beautiful, and like 'Polar Express', highlight a lovely Christmas Eve night with a dark night, making it sort of magical. Lastly, the overall humour in this is something special. There are quite a few good laugh out loud moments, mostly from Grandsanta or Bryony. But it contrasts so well against some more dramatic moments. It really does make for a good balance. I still really enjoy this movie, and encourage people to check it out. It makes for an excellent family film if you're looking for something new and family-friendly, but it's just as enjoyable as an adult. In fact, as an adult, I felt it bring back some of the Christmas spirit that I had been missing in recent years. 5/5  Before Jon Favreau hit it big with 'Iron Man', he came along and sort of broke out as a director with this nice little Christmas film.
Buddy (Will Farrell) is a human being who, as a baby, stowed himself away in Santa's (Ed Asner) sack. Upon arriving at the North Pole, and being that he was from an orphanage, he was adopted by Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) and raised at the North Pole as an Elf. By the time he's around 30, Papa Elf tells him about his history, and Buddy sets out to find out who he is by locating his real father, Walter (James Caan), in New York. Upon finding him there, he's further introduced to his family; his apparent stepmother, Emily (Mary Steenbergen) and his half brother, Michael (Daniel Tay). He also meets and falls for a Gimbles elf named Jovey (Zooey Deschenel) who isn't quite in the Christmas spirit. Most of the film involves the various funny situations that an innocent and childlike North Pole elf would probably face in a city like New York. Most of the time, the results are pretty funny, like mistaking a man in a red hoodie as Santa or even calling the now mighty Peter Dinklage an "Elf", not to be prejudice, but because he doesn't know any better. Will Farrell has his ups and downs. He's a fine enough actor in his more serious roles, but he's more typecast as a sort of man-child. Every once in a while a movie role will come along that's seemingly made for certain celebrities, and this is probably Will Farrell's. His man-child behaviour just works out really well here, as Buddy is supposed to essentially be a 30-year-old kid whose still full of Christmas wonder. Another thing to admire about the film as that they sort of went all out for the North Pole scenes in order to make it more like the many Christmas specials we all know and love. This is complete with claymation animals, what is essentially the snowman from 'Rudolph', and the falling snow is all fancy cut out paper. It's all left behind for the real world, but it does a good job of initially pulling you into the film. Where 'Elf' suffers a bit is that it's mostly the typical family-friendly story about a Dad who works too much and doesn't have time for his kids. It's not really anything new in that sense. The difference this time around though is that he's also dealing with a 30-year-old son who happens to be a North Pole elf. It's a decent family friendly film, with some humour aimed at the adults watching it as well. It's kinda nice seeing a Christmas movie come along that teaches us to embrace our inner child rather than just leave it behind altogether. It's not quite 'Arthur Christmas', but it's not far behind it for becoming a new Christmas classic. 4/5  It's often been debated that the first true slasher movie out there was 'Black Christmas', which essentially takes a 'Halloween' concept, but makes it even more creepy and realistic, and has developed one hell of a cult following. After that special Christmas movie, director Bob Clark decided to make another one a little more family friendly. Thus, we got the instant Christmas classic, 'A Christmas Story'.
'A Christmas Story' is all about a kid named Ralphie (Peter Billingsly) during Christmastime of 1940. All he wants for Christmas this year is a *deep breath* a "Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time." Sounds like a pretty badass gift, even by today's standards. The entire film is based around him trying his hardest to essentially 'Inception' the idea into anyone who might possibly give in. This includes asking his parents directly, writing a Christmas letter as a school project about it to his teacher, and even going to the big man himself at a mall. However, the response is always the same; "no, you'll shoot your eye out." While the film centers on Ralphie, it includes a good array of characters he has to put up with along the way. His dad (Darren McGavin) is a strict war veteran, his little brother, Randy (Ian Petrella) is a whiny little brat, and his mother is the closest thing to a person who understands him, yet it probably the most opposed to him having the air rifle. Other characters namely include two bullies; Scut Farkus (Zack Ward) and his sidekick Grover Dill (Yano Anaya), and his two best friends, Flick (Scott Schwartz) and Schwartz (RD Robb). This movie tend to be one of the more timeless Christmas movies out there, as there's surprisingly not a whole hell of a lot like it. The main focus of the film is a kid who wants something so badly for Christmas, he'll go out of his way, legally, to try to get it. It's a situation I'm sure we all end up facing at one point or another, and this actually illustrates it all very well with a pretty damn funny, and relatable sense of humour about it all. It's smart, it's funny, it's even a bit strange in some areas. But chances are, 'A Christmas Story' will remind you of what it was like being a kid around Christmas. I won't spoil it for you, but I will say that is all ends in the overall appreciation of the holiday. Not a bad one for a Christmas Eve night before bed time with the whole family. 5/5  Taking place seven years after their escape from Guantanamo Bay, this is what a Christmas movie looks like when it's given the Harold & Kumar treatment.
Harold is now married to his originally sought after love interest, Maria. He's also a successful businessman on Wall Street, and has since given up on the weed in order to live his "happily ever after" so to speak. But when Maria's family comes for Christmas, Harold has to put up with an incredibly unfair and tough father-in-law, and a rather scary-looking Latino family. Kumar is still the same old Kumar. He still lives in the old apartment and still smokes up whenever possible, eventually causing his originally sought after love interest to leave him. But one day, she comes along with the news that she's pregnant, so now Kumar may have to look into cleaning up his act in order to be with her again, and father a child. One day, a package is delivered to the old apartment, addressed to Harold. Kumar takes it to Harold's new, high-end house to deliver it, and as tradition has it with the pair, disaster strikes when Kumar accidentally burns down Harold's Christmas tree. The film then turns into a 3D adventure where the goal is to find a new tree before Harold's father in law, who loves Christmas with all his heart, tears 'Roldy a new one. I tend to find this particular chapter of the now trilogy to be extremely underrated. It goes back to the basic mission idea, like in the first film, as they run into all sorts of weird stuff along the way. But it adds a lot of fun twists to it, making it stand out as more of a Christmas movie. For example, there's a scene where they become "claymated" during a bad trip and run from a killer snowman. It's weird and out there and doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it seems clear they just went all out for that kinda thing anyway. I find that it IS 100% clear that the film is completely self-aware. It doesn't really make fun of itself as much as it makes fun of the 3D aspect of it though, which is unfortunately where it tends to suffer. It's definitely a movie that kinda needs to be watched in 3D in order to be fully appreciated, because of both the 3D jokes and the 3D itself. Otherwise, I can understand seeing it as kinda weak. But, if you do have access to it in 3D, and you do enjoy the 'Harold & Kumar' movies, I would totally recommend watching it. I may be on the opposite end from most who have seen it, but much like the earlier titles, I was able to appreciate this for what it was; a stoner comedy, and nothing much more. 3.5/5Taking place seven years after their escape from Guantanamo Bay, this is what a Christmas movie looks like when it's given the Harold & Kumar treatment. Harold is now married to his originally sought after love interest, Maria. He's also a successful businessman on Wall Street, and has since given up on the weed in order to live his "happily ever after" so to speak. But when Maria's family comes for Christmas, Harold has to put up with an incredibly unfair and tough father-in-law, and a rather scary-looking Latino family. Kumar is still the same old Kumar. He still lives in the old apartment and still smokes up whenever possible, eventually causing his originally sought after love interest to leave him. But one day, she comes along with the news that she's pregnant, so now Kumar may have to look into cleaning up his act in order to be with her again, and father a child. One day, a package is delivered to the old apartment, addressed to Harold. Kumar takes it to Harold's new, high-end house to deliver it, and as tradition has it with the pair, disaster strikes when Kumar accidentally burns down Harold's Christmas tree. The film then turns into a 3D adventure where the goal is to find a new tree before Harold's father in law, who loves Christmas with all his heart, tears 'Roldy a new one. I tend to find this particular chapter of the now trilogy to be extremely underrated. It goes back to the basic mission idea, like in the first film, as they run into all sorts of weird stuff along the way. But it adds a lot of fun twists to it, making it stand out as more of a Christmas movie. For example, there's a scene where they become "claymated" during a bad trip and run from a killer snowman. It's weird and out there and doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it seems clear they just went all out for that kinda thing anyway. I find that it IS 100% clear that the film is completely self-aware. It doesn't really make fun of itself as much as it makes fun of the 3D aspect of it though, which is unfortunately where it tends to suffer. It's definitely a movie that kinda needs to be watched in 3D in order to be fully appreciated, because of both the 3D jokes and the 3D itself. Otherwise, I can understand seeing it as kinda weak. But, if you do have access to it in 3D, and you do enjoy the 'Harold & Kumar' movies, I would totally recommend watching it. I may be on the opposite end from most who have seen it, but much like the earlier titles, I was able to appreciate this for what it was; a stoner comedy, and nothing much more. 3/5  I dunno exactly why, but this was one we didn't really visit as a family. My best guess is that it lies somewhere between the potential for Santa Claus to not be real and the fact that we already had some well-established classics we'd watch.
The story involves a man named Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) who comes to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade only to find that the Santa they hired is a lush. He replaces him for the parade, and is later asked to be the Santa Claus for Macy's, which he agrees to. Meanwhile, Doris Walker (Maureen O'Hara), the coordinator of the Thanksgiving Day Parade, is raising her daughter, Susan (Natalie Wood) to not believe in such nonsense as Santa Claus or any sort of fairy tales. However, her attorney neighbour, Fred Gailey (John Payne) cares a lot for Susan, and believes that the way she's being raised is taking away her childlike sense of wonder. So, upon taking Susan to visit Santa (Kris), she starts to become convinced that perhaps there is a Santa after all. The rest of the film leans heavily on Kris, being a very sweet, kindhearted old man who believes himself to really be Santa Claus. As a result, after beginning to send Macy's shoppers to other stores to find what they're looking for at a bargain, the whole thing turns into Kris against the world as some aim to have him committed for believing that he's Santa, which, as some small-minded adults are concerned, is preposterous, and potentially dangerous. Though this one is pretty new to me, and perhaps a little dated, I did manage to find quite a bit of Christmas magic to it. One can't help but fall in love with Gwenn's performance as an incredibly convincing Santa Claus in this, but the charm doesn't stop there. This film isn't just to make kids believe there's a Santa, it's to make adults believe there is as well. When I found out Santa wasn't real, it was explained to me that the figure of Santa wasn't necessarily real, but that's an easier thing for kids to wrap their heads around, as it's something physical. I was then told that what Santa really is, is that feeling of magic, wonder, joy and spirit of giving around Christmas time. In other words, Santa was the spirit of Christmas. And as far as I'm concerned, no better film portrays that than this one. 4/5 |
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