One "classic" I have yet to see (it's in my queue at the library, but it's got another 55 people to go through, so I'll probably get it some time next August) is "A Christmas Story". My favorite Christmas movie of all time, though, is of course "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". It should, in my opinion, also be everyone else's favorite Christmas movie. I think I may contact my congressman - see if we can get that put in the law books.
Today I watched a movie I hadn't seen since the 80s, I think: "Gremlins". Seeing that made me think about the fact that it is, to a certain extent, an "Unconventional Christmas Movie", and I figured I'd put together a list (although certainly not comprehensive) of other "UCM"s. Here goes:
1) The aforementioned "Gremlins" - although it's kind of a "family-friendly" horror movie about a cute little "Furby"-looking animal that ends up spawning a bunch of mischievous (and occasionally murderous) green baddies, it does take place around Christmas. In fact the main girl (Phoebe Cates' character) has a depressing, somewhat disturbing monologue explaining what tragedy in her life made her hate Christmas. The movie also stars the late, great country singer-songwriter, Hoyt Axton, as the main character, Billy's dad.
2) "The Ref" - Denis Leary plays a cat burglar who gets left behind by his partners during a Christmas Eve break-in. He ends up having to take the homeowners hostage, but regrets doing that when they start bickering and fighting and he ends up having to pretty much play marriage counselor. I may have to rent this one again - haven't seen it since college.
3) "Die Hard" - Yeah, who would think to call this a Christmas movie? It does, however, happen during Christmastime - I think, if memory serves, the big party everyone's attending is a company Christmas party. Another one I'll have to rent again. Yippie-kai-aye!
4) "Home Alone" - Macauley Culkin's masterpiece (and who ever thought those three words would ever be in a sentence together?) is also, of course, based on the fact that his family is traveling elsewhere for Christmas and forgets the adorable little punk at home. Alone, even. Hilarity ensues when a couple of hapless burglars try to invade the house and Kevin (Culkin) is forced to protect the castle.
5) "The Nightmare Before Christmas" - Tim Burton's masterpiece in stop-motion animation. Everything I was going to say was summed up better on IMDB: Jack Skellington is the pumpkin king of Halloween Town, is bored with doing the same thing every year for Halloween. One day he stumbles into Christmas Town, and is so taken with the idea of Christmas that he tries to get the resident bats, ghouls, and goblins of Halloween town to help him put on Christmas instead of Halloween -- but alas, they can't get it quite right.
There are a whole bunch of Christmas-based horror films, too, such as "Black Christmas" (the 1974 version is the original "the call is coming from inside the house" film - pretty friggin' creepy, too; "Silent Night, Deadly Night", "Jack Frost" (not the adorable Michael Keaton film), and "Santa Claws", but I won't go into them right now. Or maybe ever.
Anyway, hopefully this gives you some good holiday viewing ideas! What are some of your favorite "UCM"s?
I went with another green stroke today, for Stripe and the gang, my little mischievous, murderous buddies!
*not literally millions.
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