Oh, how I love a good Christmas film and there are lots to choose from when the season rolls around every year. November 1 is when I typically begin letting the season’s music start jingling in my ears. When it comes to picking which ones to watch every year there are the standards, the non-traditional, and then there are the unintentional.

Typically the one that I have to watch with my mom every year is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. However, once November hits I usually break out as many as I can in order to squeeze them all in before the big day arrives. I even admit that as I write this I am listening to the sounds of the season.

The standards are the mostly obvious: A Christmas Story, Home Alone, Elf, Holiday Inn, White Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life (just released on Blu-ray this week), and the original Miracle on 34th Street.

My personal tastes however, bring out others that most would probably not watch or typically think of during the season: Scrooged, Bad Santa, Love Actually, Ernest Saves Christmas, Home Alone 2, Jingle All the Way, and Santa’s Slay, or even the little seen Stalking Santa.

I mentioned before the unintentional Christmas film and I’m sure you were wondering what those would consist of. Just to name a few: Scream and Scream 2 (both released in December), Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Gremlins. Not exactly Christmas movies per se but with the exception of the Scream films, they all take place during the holiday and the season tends to exude itself throughout the run times.

Like I said, I love Christmas movies, of all shapes and sizes. What I do not like is when someone of such high acclaim as Robert Zemeckis comes along and bastardizes one of such high regard itself. This brings us to the latest in motion capture failure, Disney’s A Christmas Carol. They can keep that moniker because this is far from Charles Dickens’ original classic.

Oh yes, it definitely keeps all of the major plot points but there are a few major missteps that completely change the tone of the film. Originally the turning point of the story involved Scrooge (voiced by Jim Carrey) finally realizing the error of his money-grubbing ways when he sees that poor crippled Tiny Tim (inexplicably voiced by Gary Oldman) has passed on.

Article Author: Cinenerd

A brand new writer setting himself free into the fold to help others find out what's worth their time and that from which they should stay far far away.

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