Friday, December 25, 2009

the 12 days and 16 movies of Christmas: the top eight...

merry Christmas, everyone!!! i finished the latest movie marathon just in time! here's the end of the list! my 8 favorite Christmas films ever...

8) 'miracle on 34th street' i love this movie! such a great santa claus and an even better natalie wood, as the girl who doesn't believe in st. nick. and then she does. and then she doesn't. and then she does again.

7) 'a muppet's Christmas carol' basically anything with the muppets in it is bound to be a classic, enit? "LIGHT THE LAMP! NOT THE RAT! LIGHT THE LAMP! NOT THE RAT!" lol, good times!!!

6) 'home alone' this is such a great movie!!! and it has everything you need in a great Christmas film! family, snow, slapstick, random hope davis sighting, thought-provoking scene at a church on Christmas eve. and the guy with the shovel is starting to look a lot like my dad.

5) 'die hard' now, up until a few weeks ago, i thought i was completely alone here in thinking this was a Christmas film! but, as it turns out, a bunch of other folks have put this one on their lists of favorite holiday flicks. and, if you're not one of them, i dare you to watch this and 'the sound of music' back to back and tell me which one reminds you more of the most wonderful time of the year!

seriously. bruce willis kills bad guys to protect his estranged wife on Christmas eve in los angeles, while a twinkie-inflated cop tries to overcome both his personal demons and his frustrations with The Man. and then y'got a tune from run dmc.

eat yer heart out, charles dickens.

4) 'a Christmas story' easily the most quotable of all Christmas films. "you'll shoot your eye out!" "fra-gee-lay. it must be italian." "oh fuuuuuuuudge!" LOL!

it's just brilliant writing. really, i was thinking about this as ralphie (after the fight with farkus) knew that his father was coming home because the light outside was turning purple. a lesser writer (me) would have been satisfied with something like, "it was almost five o'clock. just about time for my dad to come home..."

great stuff.

3) 'elf' will ferrell. best belch in the history of Christmas movies. even better than the one judy garland let out in 'meet me in st. louis'. out of curiousity (and in order to show off just how much free time i truly have), i timed it. a whopping thirteen seconds long. a grand acheivement. epic. and to follow that up with the line, "did you HEAR that?!?!?!" nothing short of brilliant.

2) 'love, actually' i can't tell you how much i love this movie!!! so many things going on at once, and all of them beautiful. or silly. or sad. or funny. or hard to imagine. or downright tragic. or just out of reach. or wonderful. or pure. which is all just a lot like love, actually.

1) but, if i could only watch one Christmas movie for the rest the remainder of my days...? 'it's a wonderful life'.

it's funny, when i was a kid, this was such a different film to me. i remembered bells, and clarence, and dancing in a big swimming pool, and buffalo gals, and mr. potter. but i never got how deep it was. how dark it was. jimmy stewart (best actor of alltime, by the way) gives such a great performance here. he's charming and sweet, but when he's at the end of his rope, you feel it. you're absolutely right there with him.

and i love donna reed. when she comes in and saves the day, giving up the money for their honeymoon for the greater good of the community? it gets me everytime. i mean, how could you not want to lasso the moon for a girl like that, right?

and, of course, there's the joy of a brand new start. the unapologetic bliss of-- hours before a white Christmas morning in the town you grew up in, mind you-- knowing exactly who you are. knowing that you're exactly where you want to be. and knowing that you're surrounded by the people who love you.

here's hoping and praying that if you're reading this, you're blessed enough to know exactly what that means. and, if not? if you're not surrounded by loved ones this season? well... in the words of judy garland... "pick up the phone and wish someone you love a merry Christmas, y'dumbass."


the five things i fell in love with today...

1) family.
2) good friends.
3) the muppets.
4) the thought that jon favreau may have been sitting around for a lengthy period of time with his editor, debating, "you know... i think it's funny at 18 seconds. but it might be a little bit too much. how about we back away for... let's say, 13 seconds. see how the burp plays for the next test audience..."
5) the reason for the season, my friends. Jesus.

song of the day...
"have yourself a merry little Christmas" by judy garland. honestly, one of my favorite songs of alltime. (and, for the record, i may have made up the quote above. or maybe it was someone else who said it, i dunno. joel osteen, i think).

movie of the day...
"meet me in st. louis.

2 comments:

  1. watched 'it's a wonderful life' with the fam today. it was the first time my 83 year old grandfather had seen it. i cried 3 different times....and loved every minute of it.

    hope you had a great Christmas.

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  2. Watched Wonderful Life for what may have been the first time as an adult. Made me weepy several times too. And then briefly made me want to kiss Frank Capra right on the mouth. And then I remembered that he'd been dead for a while, so the urge faded. Anyway, great, great movie.

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