24 Hours of Movies: O Christmas Tree 2

by Patrick Bromley

Another marathon of movies programmed by our holiday decorations!

Two years ago, I took Erika's advice and wrote one of these 24 Hours of Movies pieces built around the ornaments on our Christmas tree because so many of them are movie-themed. Because I didn't cover them all (and because there are a few newer additions), it's time for another movie marathon! 

 10 am - The Wizard of Oz (1939, dir. Victor Fleming)

We'll kick things off with one of the best movies ever made and one of my lifelong favorites, not because Wicked is dominating pop culture right now but because we have all the ornaments on our tree (not pictured: the Wicked Witch, the Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Man, but they're all there!). Actually, Wicked's relationship to the The Wizard of Oz is one of the reasons I find myself outright rejecting it. That's ok! Lots of people love it. The only Oz I need is the OG, which served as a gateway for my love of movies, of horror, of the imaginative and the fantastic. If you don't believe The Wizard of Oz is a miracle movie, go back and read The Making of The Wizard of Oz by Aljean Harmetz, which was bought for me several years ago by JB and remains one of the best books I've ever read not just on the making of a movie but on how Hollywood worked during the Golden Age. We're going to treat ourselves and watch this one on 4K.

Noon - The Matrix (1999, dir. Lana & Lily Wachowski)

Ok, so this is technically a Matrix Reloaded ornament which we wouldn't automatically buy but we needed Keanu on our tree. I kind of wish Hallmark had just stuck to the original film, as it's really the only one in the series that I need (I like stuff in all the other ones, but the first movie is perfect). Because it's early in our marathon, the kids will still be hanging out with us and can experience The Matrix for the first time ever. It remains one of the best movies of one of the best movie years of all time (1999) and probably should have been Star Wars for a new generation. Instead, Star Wars Episode I was released a few months later and was Star Wars for a new generation while The Matrix inspired a bunch of bullet time jokes in hacky comedies for the next five years. I'm not suggesting the movie is or was an underdog or an outlier -- it was very successful and popular and spawned three sequels -- but I've wished for the last 25 years that Hollywood had taken the right lessons from its success. Let's watch it again and be reminded of what a unicorn it is.

2:30 pm - Beetlejuice (1988, dir. Tim Burton)

Speaking of unicorns! The release of this year's Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has me appreciating Tim Burton's original film as more of a miracle movie than I once realized. As a kid with little to no understanding of how Hollywood worked, I took its weirdness and originality at face value -- anything was possible because I didn't know that anything wasn't possible. Watching it now, it's definitely a movie where Burton and his incredible cast and collaborators got away with something. I actually liked the sequel more than I expected to, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't an echo of the OG. We actually have two Beetlejuice ornaments on the tree, but this is the one that plays audio from the movie.

4:30 pm - Grease (1978, dir. Randal Kleiser)

I'm not the biggest Grease fan, but it was a childhood favorite of Erika's so we're slotting into the lineup for nostalgic reasons. My problems with the movie are not the objectionable sexual politics that seem to have arisen online in recent years; I just find it kind of obnoxious. But my love will always love it -- mostly because she loves some of the songs and (especially and rightly) Olivia Newton John. The way ONJ's face lights up when she smiles is exactly the same way Erika's does and I know she's a style icon for E, especially at the end of the movie -- not because she changed her look to make a boy happy, but because she looks fucking fantastic. It will be fun to watch this next to Erika, who won't be able to help quoting the dialogue along with the movie because she grew up watching it repeatedly on a VHS recorded off TV. She's the best.

6:30 pm - Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991, dir. James Cameron)

Primetime Pizza Placement goes to one of the greatest sequels of all time and one of the most formative moviegoing experiences of my life. Our new T2 ornament joins our Aliens and Avatar ornaments as part of the James Cameron corner on our tree. Once those True Lies ornaments come out, we're going to need a separate tree. I mean, I guess this could technically be the original Terminator but T2 will play better in this slot. It's bigger and crazier and more fun (even if I maintain that the first movie is superior) and pairs better with our pizza.

9 pm - Gremlins (1984, dir. Joe Dante)

We can't very well do a 24-hour movie marathon during the holiday season and not watch Gremlins, right? We took the kids to see this at a drive-in during COVID but I've mostly avoided showing it to them because as much as I love Phoebe Cates' monologue (it's my favorite thing in the movie), I didn't want it dispelling they myth of Santa Claus at a time when they still believed. Now that they're older I can hopefully put in the holiday rotation. They can even stay up and watch it with us in the 9pm slot.

11 pm - KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978, dir. Gordon Hessler)

It might still be too early in the marathon for this made-for-TV nonsense, which we are going to watch with the original 1978 commercials in place so that it takes up the full two-hour runtime I've allotted. There is almost nothing redeeming about the movie, but I'd be lying if I said it still didn't manage to make me super happy when watching it just because I get to hang out with KISS for a little while (and I do mean "little;" they're not in it nearly enough for a movie in which they're ostensibly the stars). As long as I'm making up the rules to all of this, we're going to watch the original American TV version and not the theatrically-released European cut available on my KISSology box set because that version replaces a lot of the KISS music with tracks from the members' 1978 solo records and I've actually never seen the cut with the KISS songs intact. These things matter, you know.

1 am - Christine (1983, dir. John Carpenter)

This excellent Christine ornament was just released this year and is a new arrival to our tree, which is great because it helps shine a light on what is still one of the more underrated entries in John Carpenter's filmography. I think it was my friend/previous guest Joe Maddrey who dubbed this "Carpenter's Nicholas Ray movie" and I wish I had asked him to elaborate because I'm fascinated by that observation even though I'm not entirely sure what it means because I'm not smart enough.

3 am - Jaws (1975, dir. Steven Spielberg)

Here's one of two Jaws ornaments we have on our tree (the other one plays the John Williams theme!), which I can't take credit for because while I think it's perfect it's one of Erika's favorite movies and hence its placement in our marathon. I don't love its placement in the middle of the night (a few months ago I was criticizing the Music Box of Horrors for the same programming) but we only have so many horror ornaments and I used a lot of them on the last Christmas tree marathon. Maybe the fact that it's so familiar to so many of us will be a benefit, because we can sneak a few micro-naps and we'll know exactly what we've missed. It's Jaws. It's pretty good!

5:30 am - Planet of the Apes (1968, dir. Franklin J. Schaffner)

As morning breaks, the world ends and is taken over by talking apes. I think I love this franchise as a whole more than I love the 1968 original film because it gets so weird as it continues, but there's no denying this one's place as a genuine sci-fi classic and a groundbreaking work of cinema. I do love these ornaments and wish they would make more -- where is the Zira, FFS? 

7:30 am - National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989, dir. Jeremiah Chechik)

The original National Lampoon's Vacation is an '80s comedy on which I was raised and is probably the funniest movie in the series, but Christmas Vacation has to be my favorite, probably because it's the sweeter film and one which I've been able to share with my own family. It's also one of the rare post-Christmas Story holiday classics, a relatively short list that includes Home Alone, Elf, and probably Love Actually. I know that Chevy Chase was such a prick that he scared Chris Columbus off the movie, but Jeremiah Chechik does a good job as his replacement, effectively balancing the comedy with the stickier Christmas sentimentality. I'm glad we're able to work an actual Christmas movie into our Christmas tree marathon.

9:30 am - E.T. (1982, dir. Steven Spielberg)

I know it makes more sense to wrap up with Christmas Vacation, it being a modern holiday classic and all, but when I think about the final few moments of E.T. (my favorite Steven Spielberg movie) I can't imagine ending our 24-hour marathon any other way. It's just too perfect. The whole movie is perfect. Our Spielberg ornaments are giving our Cameron ornaments a run for their money (if they make a Hook ornament I'll totally buy it), so let's continue holding out hope for an Always Holly Hunter next year. I can probably talk Charlie into watching E.T. with us early in the morning because Steven Spielberg is his favorite director, even though he thinks the movie is too sad. He's not wrong, I told him, but it's the good kind of sad. For a lot us, this time of year can feel like that, too.

Happy Holidays, everyone. Love you all.