Saturday, December 1, 2012

Weekend Weigh-in: What Movies Are Your Holiday Season Traditions?

It's December now, which can mean only one thing: 25 days of Reindeer Games!

What movies do you all watch every holiday season? They don't have to be holiday-themed movies, of course. All the characters in Predator celebrate Christmas at some point, right? Even the Predator. Predator Christmas. A Very Predator Christmas!

27 comments:

  1. Pretty much the annual traditions at my house, as far as movies are concerned, are to watch the following:

    Elf: Yeah, it's Will Farrel being a man child, but he's a funny and heartwarming man child in this movie. It's a lot of fun, and something I now can't go a year without at least watching once during the holiday season

    It's a Wonderful Life: A true classic. I don't think there's much that needs to be said about it other than it's fantastic and perhaps the quintessential movie for this time of year.

    A Charlie Brown Christmas: Does this count? Oh well, I'll put it in there anyway. Linus speaking about the true meaning of Christmas and then later when the kids resurrect Charlie Brown's tree are two moments that get me every time.

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    1. *Ferrell

      Should have checked that one before I wrote it.

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  2. Most years I end up watching Jingle All The Way, Christmas with the Kranks, Deck the Halls, White Christmas and best of all It's a Wonderful Life. I also seem to find my way to You've Got Mail sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That movie's dope :-)

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  3. A christmas story - the perfect encapsulation of what it's like to want a certain gift so bad that you'll do anything to convince your parents to get it for you

    Polar Express - always wind up watching it. Just really charming and great.

    Movies that i want to start watching every year:

    It's a wonderful life - I've now seen this movie twice and it's wonderful (pardon the generic pun). I just watched it about a week ago but i might pop it in on christmas eve.

    Die Hard - caught it on HBO about a month ago and was in awe at how great it is. Truly the perfect action movie.



    This post is long enough but i have a suggestion - Maybe you guys could do a Star Wars holiday special commentary. I know you guys dont like watching things ironically but that seems to be what you do with the commentarys so, think about.

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    1. Dude (or dudette since you're Anynymous ;-P), HBO shows movies that are anamorphic (i.e. horizontal black bars on a widescreen TV) zoomed-in to fit the screen. There's literally more of "Die Hard" for you to see/love that you didn't see on HBO. Trust me, rent/borrow/buy a DVD or (preferably) a Blu-ray of "Die Hard" with its correct 2:20:1 AR and the movie will truly blow you away. And this coming from someone who could take or leave "Die Hard" as a good action flick, but fucking hates it when a movie isn't shown in its proper/correct aspect ratio (which sadly HBO and Cinemax are guilty of).

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    2. I'm a dude and my god are you a film nerd lol. I have seen die hard before but I didn't really make it clear in the comment. I was just saying that I caught I again for the first time in a while and was blown away by how crazy entertaining it is. But yea I got the 4 movie collection thing so I will totally be watching the original again before Christmas. But thanks for the aspect ratio lesson (I mean that sincerely and not sarcastically). I now know What anamorphic actually means. All the I knew was that widescreen is always the way to go. That point was solidified when i watched my DVD of the first Sam Raimi Spiderman and it was full screen. Let's just say it was an irritating viewing experience of an otherwise solid superhero flick. Now I have spidey 1 and 2 in Blu ray and it looks great. But thanks again.

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  4. First and foremost, the Christmas card from The Predators is now my desktop wallpaper, and will sit there until New Year's. WELL DONE!

    Every year we watch Home Alone, Elf, A Christmas Story, and a butt load (definition: more than a few) of animated specials. I still watch Garfield, Charlie Brown, and the Will Vinton Claymation Christmas withe the California Raisins every single year, and most years we watch Rudolph, The Grinch special, all that stuff. Some years we watch Die Hard and Miracle on 34th Street (original), but not consistently. We haven't watched It's A Wonderful Life in ages. Maybe this is the year for that.

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    1. I wish I could take credit for that picture. It was just a Google image search.

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  5. Pretty much like the rest of you, I go with "A Christmas Story", "Its A Wonderful Life", "Miracle on 34th Street"(original). Though I'm partial to "The Santa Clause" and (gulp) "Fred Claus". I know, I know, it's awful. But, it has a special place in my heart since I watched it with my then girlfriend/now wife on our first Christmas together. Now it's tradition.

    Also, I think "The Ref" and "Bad Santa" would make a great double feature.

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  6. Love Actually, A Christmas Story, It's A Wonderful Life and Die Hard.

    Miracle on 34th Street I'll watch...but I'll skip through it.

    TV Specials, of course. I already watched Charlie Brown, Grinch is on the DVR and we'll watch Rodulph and Year Without A Santa Claus at some point.

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  7. Oh! And if you get a chance, check out Christmas With The Marches on Lifetime. We just did a hate watch and it's a magnificent turd of a version of Little Women.

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  8. No holiday movie viewing tradition for me. Guess being a hardcore atheist that doesn't celebrate Christmas has its costs. As a cinephile though I just find most Christmas movies twist themselves into pretzels for the writers to come up tricks to shoehorn the Christmas spirit into their narratives. The ending of "Scrooged" when Bill Murray gives that forced speech at the end trying to rally people into the spirit of the season is a perfect example. "It's A Wonderful Life" and "A Christmas Story" are the best of the lot (their cathartic/cheerful moments come after a genuine exploration of complex/dark emotions most Christmas movies ignore or paper over) but they're not flicks I would watch again and again because they're no fun. "Christmas Vacation" is OK but not as funny as the first two "Vacation" movies.

    There's a couple of other Christmas-set movies I like very much but, given I recently worked on them, I can't mention them due to my employer's NDA I signed. But what all these movies have in common is that I can watch them year-round fine but not in December. To me Christmas is a thing that happens, not something I feel, hence a background/plot element to a movie I watch more than something to reklindle a non-existing feeling I'm supposed to experience every December.

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  9. Don't forget about the first "Lethal Weapon" and "Gremlins." Chistmas classics.
    Also, "Bad Santa."

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  10. "It's A Wonderful LIfe," after nightfall on Christmas Eve. And there MUST be a fire in the fireplace.

    Then Die Hard on Christmas Day. Fire is optional.

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  11. Ive never really had a tradition of watching movies at Christmas but since being with my fiance I have been subjected to her tradition of Love Actually, which I really dont mind. Its a nice one.

    And I have noticed that whenever Christmas Vacation is on TV my whole family will stop whatever we are doing and gravitate towards the tele. One of only two movies that happens for, the other being Naked Gun (but thats not very Christmassy though)

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  12. Crimeny, I forgot The Muppet Christmas Carol, which is my favorite version.

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  13. I have some 10 versions of A Christmas Carol, 2 or three Miracle on 34th Streets, a few other Christmas movies, more TV and cartoon specials than I wish to count and a couple of concert videos. There are also all those super cheep collections of public domain cartoons and TV shows that I can look at sometimes, but I can't actually watch because they're mostly made of nightmare fuel and garbage. I've got a problem, and I know it.

    We watch one or two a night, more or less at random. If we're watching half hour cartoons, we might squeeze in 3. This means we don't watch everything in our collection every year. It does however provide some variety, and it means I only have to watch The He-Man She-Ra Christmas special (my wife's favorite) once every couple of years.

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  14. Bad Santa-I still laugh as hard as I did the first time every time I watch it.
    Home Alone-Childhood favorite
    Trading Places-Great movie and proof that Eddie Murphy used to be funny
    And then Jack Frost-because what else am I going to do, spend time with my family? GEEZ!

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  15. Does anyone watch Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang? Caught some of it on HBO last night, and it takes place around Christmas (several Shane Black movies do). Man, that's a great movie.

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    1. You're right, "The Long Kiss Goodnight" also takes place around Christmas (not the holiday itself but the month-long celebration). Geena Davis sliding down the electric line on the bridge with the light bulbs slowing her descent (followed by the big-ass bridge explosion) is one of my favorite movie moments ever.

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    2. I don't watch Kiss Kiss Bang Bang every year, but I do adore that movie.

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  16. Jingle All the Way, as bad as it is, was a movie I watched over and over again throughout the month of December while I was growing up so to this day I have to watch it around Christmas just once. It's one of those films I can't help but get a kick out of.

    I also always seem to catch How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original animated film) which I love. And A Christmas Story, of course.

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  17. Jingle all the Way was on tele last night here, and I noticed a funny thing at the end of the movie similar to the ending of Home Alone commented upon on the podcast.

    The whole movie is about Arnold realising that other activities and material possessions arent as important as spending time with his son. So at the very end of the movie when he finally realises this the crowd of people put him up on their shoulders and carry him away from his son while he is cheering about it.

    "Yeah, now I know that time and proximity with the single most important person in my life is the most precious gift I can give.....let me go away from him with all these random strangers.. I AM TURBOMAN!"

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  18. Hmm lots of good choices here for Christmas movies...

    Old School Heartfelt Awesome: Its a Wonderful Life

    Santa's Freakin Awesome and Dont F*** with him: Miracle on 34th Street

    Santa's Freakin Hammered and Dont F*** with him: Bad Santa

    Santa who's never good in movies except Galaxy Quest: Santa Clause

    and Finally Santa who has totally skipped his meds: Santa Claus (the mexican version on MST3K, with the original demon Pitch, I smell lawsuit against Guardians movie)

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  19. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

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