Last Movie Watched

Still haven't jumped on board the K-Pop Demon Hunters train, but something tells me that's about to change. I'm flying home for the holidays in a few days, and my nibling is a big fan of it. I don't think I'll be allowed to sleep under the same roof if I haven't seen it.

A question for ya'll- what are some of your favorite movies to watch around the holidays? Whether Christmas-themed or not? I wanna show the boyfriend some fun holiday movies; he's Jewish, so didn't grow up with a lot of the same ones. He's seen some of the classics- Home Alone 1 & 2, I showed him Die Hard last year, Nightmare Before Christmas, etc. I think the plan this year is to show him It's A Wonderful Life (my mom's fav) and the Jim Carrey Grinch, but what are some of your holiday musts, conventional or not?
 
I hate Elf (I don't like Will Ferrell's brand of comedy), but everyone else I know loves it. Also, The Preacher's Wife, which stars Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston. And The Last Holiday, with Queen Latifah who was on a roll with quality rom coms in the 2000s. A Diva's Christmas Carol with Vanessa Williams too if he likes campy.
 
This will sound curmudgeonly, but I don't like any holiday movie enough to watch yearly.

Love Actually comes closest, and I'm not watching that more than once every half-decade. I've been rewatching Over the Garden Wall every Halloween since I first saw it, and I think that will have to stop, too. It gets less magical with every rewatch.

The best Christmasy movies are Love Actually, Elf, Nightmare Before Christmas, Black Christmas, The Polar Express, Home Alone, Gremlins, Die Hard, and Klaus. Outside of Nightmare, Die Hard, and Klaus, I wouldn't say any of them are great movies.

My favorite Christmas thing is the Grinch animated special.
 
Totally fair, TSI. Ironically, one of my favorite holiday watches ever since it started airing this time of year is the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Think they started playing it on/around Christmas on ABC Family/Freeform/whatever a while ago, and it's become a staple- helps me feel warm in the cold winter months.

He liked Love Actually well enough. Showed him Gremlins I think last year and he thought it was "cute". He liked Krampus. He's a bit of a tough audience- we like a lot of the same things, but differ wildly on others. I'd love to show him Christmas Vacation, but I don't think he'd get it. I think we tried The Night Before and Office Christmas Party and he checked out, but we may try again on the former, since it's one of my Mom's favs.

Klaus is a good idea, though, as is Polar Express. We went on a local version of the Polar Express last week with his friend's kid for their birthday, and he said he'd never seen it. It's not truly Christmas until the nightmare fuel Steven Tyler elf assaults your retinas.
 
Love Actually is a great Christmas Rom-Com. I'd add National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. My favorite nostalgic film is the Italian cheese-classic The Christmas that Almost Wasn't.

Trying to remember how much Hanukkah is in An American Tail... I've heard another fun, animated film for Hanukka is Eight Crazy Nights, but I've never seen.
 
Felonious Monk said:
Love Actually is a great Christmas Rom-Com. I'd add National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. My favorite nostalgic films is the Italian cheese-classic There Once Was A Christmas that Almost Wasn't.

Trying to remember how much Hanukkah is in An American Tail... I've heard another fun, animated film for Hanukka is Eight Crazy Nights, but I've never seen.
Click to expand...
Good choices! I've been trying to get him to watch An American Tail for ages (gotta show him more Don Bluth in general- he's never seen Land Before Time). Eight Crazy Nights is a good suggestion- I could see him going either way on it. He wouldn't be offended, but I don't know if he'd be entertained either.
 
joshsquash729 said:
Good choices! I've been trying to get him to watch An American Tail for ages (gotta show him more Don Bluth in general- he's never seen Land Before Time). Eight Crazy Nights is a good suggestion- I could see him going either way on it. He wouldn't be offended, but I don't know if he'd be entertained either.
Click to expand...
I just watched The Secret of NIMH last night. LOL! I love Bluth films.
 
My big holiday movies are:
-Batman Returns
-Die Hard
-A Christmas Story
-Muppet Christmas Carol
-Scrooged!
-various other Christmas Carols (not the Jim Carrey one) A Christmas Carol is by far my favorite Christmas story
-The Ref (hard to watch now re: Spacey)
-It’s a Wonderful Life
-Miracle on 34th Street (original)
-Gremlins
-Black Christmas
-“Comfort and Joy” episode of Justice League
-Nosferatu 2024 (it IS a Christmas movie!)
-Bad Santa (this is the kind of Christmas comedy that appeals to me)
-Violent Night
-Krampus
-“And All Through the House” episode of Tales from the Crypt
-“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” - Boris Karloff original

Love Actually creeps me out, and creeps me out more each year. I would 💯 watch the dark domestic drama that is the Emma Thomson/Alan Rickman portion as a whole movie, the body-double story is very cute and nice, and there’s good acting in there, but pretty much all the other stories involve yucky stalking or body shaming or punch-down imperialist xenophobia or just glorifying gross horny dudes or or . . .
It’s a mean movie, man. It makes me feel bad.

Tried with Elf. I find *some* Will Ferrell stuff funny, but aggressively NOT this film. 2000s “wild and crazy guys” comedies in general are not my thing. My wife keeps trying to get me to rewatch Old School and Wedding Crashers. Sorry, honey, that’s gonna be a huge NO.

Chevy Chase is a non-starter in general, unless a *lot* of funnier people are in the movie, like Three Amigos or something.

The uncanny valley of Polar Express makes it unwatchable for me. I *do* have a ton of colleagues who work a live-action Polar Express event every year, so I keep meaning to go support them and ride the train.

Generally I’m looking for movies that subvert or interrogate the Christmas season, as opposed to movies that celebrate it.

Currently watching (for the first time!!) Cash on Delivery via TCM’s Noir Alley, a Christmas-set heist drama from Hammer Films starring Peter Cushing and Andre Morrell.
 
We watch Elf every year because my wife loves it, and I do enjoy it. There are a couple of Will Ferrell movies I really love, but I totally get why some wouldn't find him funny. Elf, though, to me is a really different performance than something like Old School, which is one I've never enjoyed.

We watched Gremlins last night. I've watched Polar Express, Christmas Vacation (which I enjoy less every year because of Chase), the Jonas Brothers Christmas movie, and the Cumberbatch Grinch so far. I don't like the Jim Carrey one, though my wife and daughters watched that yesterday. We've had Four Christmases, Ernest Saves Christmas, and Scrooged on while doing stuff, and I'm sure the kids have watched stuff without me. I intend to watch Lethal Weapon and may give Office Christmas Party another try, and hope to get the kids to watch Ref again. We also watched Christmas episodes of several comedies.

I quoted Bad Santa to a coworker last week, "You won't shit right for a week."
 
joshsquash729 said:
Some things really hit home in a lot of ways. The scene where Josh O'Connor takes the phone call was a lovely little scene that felt like it came out of nowhere, but in the best way- a kindness we're severely lacking nowadays.
Click to expand...
The more I watch Rian's films the more of a humanist he seems to me. In much the same way as someone like Terry Pratchett was a humanist. Whatever else one may say of his work, Rian likes people, enjoys people, thinks they're neat. And I think that breeds in his stuff a sense of kindness that I just don't get in some other directors. Allowing the villain confession was another good bit.

Also his abiding love for Sondheim continues to shine through.
CTV said:
I hate Elf (I don't like Will Ferrell's brand of comedy), but everyone else I know loves it.
Click to expand...
I've never seen Elf, but I think it is 50% of the reason I didn't get more Master and Commander films, so I dislike it on irrational general principle (and also I'm not the biggest Ferrell fan).
TheSameIdiot said:
This will sound curmudgeonly, but I don't like any holiday movie enough to watch yearly.
Click to expand...
Bah, humbug (agreement).
TheSameIdiot said:
I've been rewatching Over the Garden Wall every Halloween since I first saw it, and I think that will have to stop, too. It gets less magical with every rewatch.
Click to expand...
I do Over the Garden wall for Thanksgiving, usually, and only every other year or so. I think of it was kind of the closer to spooky season. Despite the setting, it feels less like Halloween to me than it does settling in as the cold locks down. Given it's themes, it also feels a bit wrong for Halloween. It's about death in a way that's not spooky or scary really, more contemplative and somber. I think that's why it hasn't lost much punch for me. I like a good somber piece.
 
Ru1977 said:
There are a couple of Will Ferrell movies I really love, but I totally get why some wouldn't find him funny.
Click to expand...
I like Anchorman for broad comedy (there’s some incredible ensemble sketch comedy work going on in there beyond the usual “big star falls down” nonsense), but mostly I like Ferrell in relatively more serious roles. “Dumb, loud, childish guy” is just not a comedy trope I love. I *hated* him on SNL, he’s one of the reasons I stopped watching.
 
I really loved Stranger Than Fiction, but I tend to actually not watch many of his movies despite how much I love Anchorman. I also do like Stepbrothers which is severely absurd.
 
AceofKnaves said:
John C. Reilly consistently brings out the best in Ferrell. I don’t gravitate to Stepbrothers but I definitely think they are doing great comedy work there.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think the cast really offers a lot there. I also love Adam Scott in that while being extremely glad I've never seen him play a similar character again since.

Meanwhile, I didn't enjoy Talladega Nights and haven't tried their Sherlock Holmes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top