Today the plan is that I get all my work done by tea time, then we settle down as a family to watch "Nativity" with Martin Freeman... I think it is my wife's attempt to get this particular Grinch geared up for the coming season. So I thought, given that so many of you loved the recent flurry of memes (yes... with the exception of you Mrs. "I'm too busy for that sort of thing, unlike you boys" Holt), that I would set you another one... Your ten favourite Christmas-related movies...
Same rules apply... Post 10 and tag 10 people including me so I can keep track of the fun and games... You can post them as a comment here, on facebook or on your own blog...
Here's mine... in no particular order except the first one which is unimpeachably the best Christmas movie ever... and if anyone wants to disagree, its pistols at dawn...
1) It's a Wonderful Life - The piece of Frank Capra magic starring James Stewart which was, mystifyingly, a flop on its cinema release but which subsequently has gained legendary status. The first film I remember crying at... which given I was about 14 at the time I first saw it, was dreadfully embarassing. Of course I am referring to the original black and white version, not the aberrant colorised version publicised in the above picture...
2) Holiday Inn/White Christmas - take your pick... they're essentially the same schmaltzy snow-bound tale with Bing Crosby singing his big hit... I can never remember which one is which...
3) Home Alone - I know, I really should hang my head in shame, but the original was quite funny in a cruel, slapstick kind of way... and was every young boy's (and grown up young boy's) fantasy, wrapped up in a "pro-family" message... It has been greatly diminished by repeated rehashing of the same formula however...
4) Die Hard - Hardly saccharine Christmas fare, but set as it, and it's immediate successor, was, at Chrismas, it fits my criteria... Again, as with Home Alone, it has been diminished by repeated cloning... and its successors don't have the superb Alan Rickman as an over the top villain...
5) Nativity! - the film that inspired this list, and one of the best modern takes on this time of year...
6) Meet Me in St Louis - another classic (by which I mean black and white weepie) Christmas musical, this time with Judy Garland doing the warbling...
7) Scrooged - another slightly guilty secret, as this is such a saccharine remake of the Dickens' classic... but I'm not a great fan of Dickens and would need someone to stand over me with a pistol to watch a more literal adaptation... Anyway, Bill Murray is always good value... Which leads me to...
8) Groundhog Day - yes I know its not got ANYTHING to do with Christmas per se, but it's got snow in it, and is a piece of comic genius that not even Andi McDowell can spoil, so it's good enough for me...
9) Millions - Danny Boyle's pre-slumdog sleeper, about two boys doling out money that has "fallen from heaven" in the run up to Christmas and the abandonment of the pound in favour of the Euro. I think it deserves greater prominence than it has got since it was released 5-6 years ago...
10) The Great Escape - OK the only link to Christmas is that throughout my childhood it always seemed to be on every Boxing Day... but that's good enough for me... and one day Steve McQueen will manage to jump that barbed wire border fence!
You'll notice that there isn't any explicitly Biblical take on Christmas in these films (Nativity! is as close as it gets). i've never seen "The Nativity Story" released a couple of years ago, so I don't know if it would have muscled its way into this list if I had. But I haven't seen any others that have done the "original script" justice.
Anyway... It is only a bit of fun, so don't spend too much time on it... Or else you'll find the productivity police like Petherick/Holt on your back!
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