Best/Worst Holiday Movies
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2023 7:59 pm
I reluctantly admit I am a sucker for holiday (I use holiday instead of Christmas, becuase most are concerned with the secular Christmas celebrated rather than the religious one), even TV holiday episodes. I have sat through meany horrendous movies of this genre (especially the more recent ones), but there are some diamonds among the coal. I would like to see which holiday movies people love or hate here, and will start it here with one of each of my own.
Bad
One Magic Christmas is an incredibly bad movie IMHO because it misses on many points and results in a movie not worth the watch. It was released by Disney in the 1980s, and is an updated retelling (with liberties) of It's a Wonderful Life. The protagonist is played by Mary Steenbergen (a very underrated actress who does it well here) who lives with her husband and children in a company town, and they are losing their house by Jan 1 as her husband was being laid off. She works in a minimum wage job in a store, and is pretty pissed at the world, having no time for Christmas. So by Christmas movie standards she needs to be taught a lesson.
However, unlike George Bailey's, her lesson is horrible; she has a fight with her husband about not wanting to use any of their small nest egg (around 3-6 months pay), and he storms off to the bank to take some money for presents (saying "Christmas is about presents for kids" a big turn away from most of the holiday movies, but then Disney is a toy company) . He leaves the kids in the car and goes into the bank, where a bankrobber shoots and kills him, and then steals the car with the kids and skids of a bridge into the water. So she's lost everything--except she hasn't--somehow the kids are found alive (you see, they need the kids for the rest of the movie).
Mourning the death`of their dads, the kids meet an angel who says he can help them if they help their mother get Christmas back in her heart, and they have to tell no one about him. Except this isn't any garden variety angel with wings and an ethereal glow, it's Harry Dean Stanton (about the most un-angelic guy I can think of) dressed in shabby clothes meeting them in the shadows. To hell with all the stranger danger, if he's an angel, just do what he wants kids.
Then, in an almost unintelligible set of sequences he takes them to see Santa Claus who raises their father from the dead (can he do that? I guess so, he's a saint) as their mom realizes it's a wonderful life.
Toning down the tragedy, dropping the gift plugs, and not making Santa akin to god could have made it a much better movie, as could using a less menacing angel, but IMHO they missed the mark. And it is sad, the recession and loss of jobs, especially in small towns, was rampant at the time (remember the SNL skits about the mall closing and only the scotch tape stores making sales so the others could post their closing signs?) and a movie using this as a backdrop could have been very good, but such was not to be. I think it's available on DVD, but can't recall the last time I saw it broadcast.
Good
FX Christmas Carol is a dark reworking of the Scrooge story which is made for mature audiences. It has the usual settings with the ghosts, Marley, and Scrooge and ends with Scrooge's redemption, but in a very cynical way. Basically, we are treated to a litany of misdeeds of Scrooge and Marley in the early days, and Scrooge later, and some of them are perverse, some horrifying. We also got to see how these misdeeds gave Scrooge the few little pleasures he had, and he comes across as someone undeserving of any understanding, less redemption. It's long--nearly 3 hours--and is a compilation of a 3 part BBC series called A Christmas Carol. What I especially enjoy about it is that Scrooge doesn't change completely, but, in a way, cannot forgive himself after seeing himself through the mirror of the ghosts. He says he will try to be the best he can be, but he (at least in his mind) has much to atone for.
I think it is a good retelling of the story and focuses a modern eye on it. Also, unlike the above move it is not marketed to children and is replete with warnings of the scenes to come. It's well worth the watch.
I would guess FX will broadcast this once or twice in the coming weeks, and I think it is available for streaming, but do not believe it is avaialable on DVD.
Post some of your own.
Bad
One Magic Christmas is an incredibly bad movie IMHO because it misses on many points and results in a movie not worth the watch. It was released by Disney in the 1980s, and is an updated retelling (with liberties) of It's a Wonderful Life. The protagonist is played by Mary Steenbergen (a very underrated actress who does it well here) who lives with her husband and children in a company town, and they are losing their house by Jan 1 as her husband was being laid off. She works in a minimum wage job in a store, and is pretty pissed at the world, having no time for Christmas. So by Christmas movie standards she needs to be taught a lesson.
However, unlike George Bailey's, her lesson is horrible; she has a fight with her husband about not wanting to use any of their small nest egg (around 3-6 months pay), and he storms off to the bank to take some money for presents (saying "Christmas is about presents for kids" a big turn away from most of the holiday movies, but then Disney is a toy company) . He leaves the kids in the car and goes into the bank, where a bankrobber shoots and kills him, and then steals the car with the kids and skids of a bridge into the water. So she's lost everything--except she hasn't--somehow the kids are found alive (you see, they need the kids for the rest of the movie).
Mourning the death`of their dads, the kids meet an angel who says he can help them if they help their mother get Christmas back in her heart, and they have to tell no one about him. Except this isn't any garden variety angel with wings and an ethereal glow, it's Harry Dean Stanton (about the most un-angelic guy I can think of) dressed in shabby clothes meeting them in the shadows. To hell with all the stranger danger, if he's an angel, just do what he wants kids.
Then, in an almost unintelligible set of sequences he takes them to see Santa Claus who raises their father from the dead (can he do that? I guess so, he's a saint) as their mom realizes it's a wonderful life.
Toning down the tragedy, dropping the gift plugs, and not making Santa akin to god could have made it a much better movie, as could using a less menacing angel, but IMHO they missed the mark. And it is sad, the recession and loss of jobs, especially in small towns, was rampant at the time (remember the SNL skits about the mall closing and only the scotch tape stores making sales so the others could post their closing signs?) and a movie using this as a backdrop could have been very good, but such was not to be. I think it's available on DVD, but can't recall the last time I saw it broadcast.
Good
FX Christmas Carol is a dark reworking of the Scrooge story which is made for mature audiences. It has the usual settings with the ghosts, Marley, and Scrooge and ends with Scrooge's redemption, but in a very cynical way. Basically, we are treated to a litany of misdeeds of Scrooge and Marley in the early days, and Scrooge later, and some of them are perverse, some horrifying. We also got to see how these misdeeds gave Scrooge the few little pleasures he had, and he comes across as someone undeserving of any understanding, less redemption. It's long--nearly 3 hours--and is a compilation of a 3 part BBC series called A Christmas Carol. What I especially enjoy about it is that Scrooge doesn't change completely, but, in a way, cannot forgive himself after seeing himself through the mirror of the ghosts. He says he will try to be the best he can be, but he (at least in his mind) has much to atone for.
I think it is a good retelling of the story and focuses a modern eye on it. Also, unlike the above move it is not marketed to children and is replete with warnings of the scenes to come. It's well worth the watch.
I would guess FX will broadcast this once or twice in the coming weeks, and I think it is available for streaming, but do not believe it is avaialable on DVD.
Post some of your own.