Awful Christmas Movies

I know I've said this before, but since it's a new board, I'll tell it again. My dad got a VHS copy of It's a Wonderful Life from a coworker, and I borrowed it. Except I had no idea it was defective - it ended right after George threw himself off the bridge! My cousins and I were watching it and could not understand why everyone loved this awful, depressing movie!!

That's hilarious, inversed!
I always think of that episode of Friends where Monica makes Phoebe watch it to cheer her up, and she says, "they should have called it 'It's a Sucky Life, and just when you think it can't suck anymore, it does!'"

Eris Rising wrote:

jcpdiesel21 wrote:

curryalley wrote:In terms of so-bad-it's-good Christmas movies, I have to throw in behind the Keanu Reeves/Drew Barrymore cracky goodness of Babes in Toyland. Totally the reason I know how to spell Cinncinnati correctly.

I am SO ANGRY that Netflix does not carry this movie. I have wanted to see it ever since I saw the cover at my local grocery store a few years ago.

Merry Christmas.

Yay! I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid!

I'm pretty sure I've seen that All I Want For Christmas movie, but I couldn't tell you a thing about it.

Is it weird to consider Love, Actually a Christmas movie? A lot of it takes place around Christmas. I know that the movie has a lot of flaws, but I can't help but love it. As the parent of a kid who once came home to proudly announce that she was going to be Alien #2 in the Christmas play, I totally identify with the whole "I'm going to be a LOBSTER!" scene.

I am pretty sure that movie has been fully adopted as a Christmas movie. Its a holiday tv staple now.

I love it also. I think some stories are better then others but I like them all, tbh.

I was an antelope in the Christmas pageant one year. Love, Actually rules.

My holiday tradition is to watch Love, Actually while I wrap my presents. It's pretty much the only sappy Christmas movie I like.

That movie (along with Shaun of the Dead) solidified my love for Bill Nighy.

Interviewer: Who's the best you ever slept with?
Billy Mack: Britney Spears.
Interviewer: *skeptically* Really?
Billy Mack: No, not really.
Interviewer: Yeah, I didn't think -
Billy Mack: She was crap.

Rifftrax is having an extended edition riff of Santa Claus and the Ice Cream Bunny streaming online right here on Friday Dec. 16 and Saturday Dec. 17 at 7 pm. I'm there! Yup, new holiday tradition :)

Shalamar wrote:

Potterville always seemed a more interesting place to live.

I know! They had speakeasies and fancy women!

One of my favorite parts of It's a Wonderful Life was in Nick's bar during the alternate timeline. Nick turned into a real jackass. "Okay, that's it! You two pixies out the door, or out the windah!"

Oh, hey, remember when that Italian family bought the house, and Mary presented them with a loaf of bread and said "So that your family will never know hunger" in that really hoity-toity, lady-of-the-manor way? I just wanted to slap her.

And George never got to see the world!

Also no comeuppance for Dick Chen...er...Mr Potter. I love the SNL skit of the lost ending of IAWL where Uncle Charlie remembers what happened to the money and they all go to Potter's house and beat him to death.

Even worse is the Marlo Thomas tv movie of it with the TV Trapper John.

Anyone still have an embarrassing love for the Home Alone movies?

"I wouldn't let you sleep in my room if you were GROWING on my ASS."

I also hate every version/take-off of A Christmas Carol ever, except Scrooged. (I suspect I wouldn't hate the Muppet one, but I've never seen it.)

Gasp! Not even the Mr. Magoo version?

I watch Love Actually every year. It's definitely not perfect, but the stronger storylines rescue the weaker ones and make it really enjoyable to watch. Bill Nighy and Hugh Grant are aces in their roles. Billy Mack's version of "Christmas is All Around" has even made its way into my holiday music rotation.

Does anyone else like The Holiday? That's another movie that's not perfect, but pleasant enough due to the actors involved. I really like the unusual romatic matchup of Jack Black and Kate Winslet (I adore the scene in the video store), and Eli Wallach is so adorable. Even though I wasn't wild about the Cameron Diaz/Jude Law part of the story at first, halfway through with a plot twist it really sucked me in.

I like that one a lot. I agree the Kate/Jack story is stronger, but I also really like the Cameron/Jude one. I'm one of the few people that in the right role finds Cameron Diaz very endearing and this is one of them. And Jude Law is at his most charming. Plus damn its lifestyle porn.

Francie Nolan wrote:

Kiran wrote:I LOVE Its a Wonderful Life. I have so so so much affection for it so I will be the odd one out.

I'll join you! It's pretty much my favorite movie ever, mostly because it's super depressing until the last 20 minutes. And I kind of love that Potter never gets his comeuppance, which was pretty edgy for the time. Unless you count that one SNL sketch.

I do always roll my eyes at the Martinis' trip to Bailey Park. An endless amount of children, a nanny goat in the car, and Martini singing "O Sole Mio"--the trifecta of Italian stereotypes! Way to go, Capra.

I also love It's a Wonderful Life, because George Bailey is a wonderful man (of course, because he's Jimmy Stewart), and I find the courtship sequence of him and Mary charming, and somewhat awkward, and satisfyingly mushy.

I can see why people don't like it - it is slow and can be cheesy - but I adore it.

Oh man, the courtship - especially the scene in which they're on the phone with Sam Wainwright, and George is looking at Mary with such longing ... breaks my heart and fogs up the screen, every time.

Discussion about A Christmas Story on the Unpopular Movie Opinions thread prompted me to come over here and declare my love. Darren McGavin was so awesome in it. When Ralphie is unwrapping his final present (you know the one), the joy on the Old Man's face rivals that of his son, and it is SO great.

I too adore A Christmas Story. And I am going to visit the house and museum here in Cleveland next week. :B

I just got every single Rankin-Bass Christmas special. I'll be going through them over the next several weeks. First thing I've noticed? Santa kind of comes across as a dick in some of them.

I've maintained for years that the Rudolph version of Santa is a total toolbox. "Sorry your son is defective, there, Donner. Don't you have a basement you can chain him up in so he doesn't ruin Christmas?"

And just who marooned all those Misfit Toys on that island, hmmmm? Couldn't be the guy with the only means of transportation in the WHOLE NORTH POLE????

Also Santa, those elves have been working on their carols for you for a LONG time. You don't have to be so dismissive of them!

I've always referred to the Santa in "Rudolph" as Bastard Santa. He's horrible! I like Mrs. Claus, though. She tells him off several times. Mickey Rooney Santa in "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" is a sweetheart, though. Sacrilege that it is, I don't really like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It's okay, but there are better specials.

*takes a deep breath*

I don't like A Charlie Brown Christmas. At all. I find it slow, dull, and annoyingly preachy. I used to watch it every year out of obligation until I realized I didn't give a shit about it and that I never will. Now, I'm finally free.

Someone please tell me I'm not alone. Whenever I say this, I get a few hard looks, like I'm an ogre or something.

Nah, I love Peanuts (particularly the really old stuff... I guess I'm a Peanuts hipster or something). But all of their TV specials make my eyes roll back.

And I hate the whole concept of "Rudolph" (the song, any covers of it, the story, the animated special, the message, whatever) full stop, so Bastard Coated Bastard with Bastard Filling Santa is just one more damn thing to chalk up on the board against it.

Let's not forget The Year Without A Santa Claus, where the entire plot revolves around Santa being a passive-aggressive attention whore.

Eris Rising wrote:Let's not forget The Year Without A Santa Claus, where the entire plot revolves around Santa being a passive-aggressive attention whore.

Is that the one with Heat Miser and Snow Miser? As soon as that one airs, I'll be scurrying off to the "Earworms" thread because those songs are catchy as hell! "I'm Mister Green Christmas, I'm Mister Sun, I'm Mister Heat Blister, I'm Mister Hundred-and-One. They call me Heat Miser, What ever I touch, Starts to melt in my clutch, I'm too much!"

I watched that ONE time last year and I was humming those for weeks and even doing the little box step that goes along with it.