5 favorite Christmas movies
Merry Christmas Eve! All week long I’ll be featuring lists of my favorite Christmas entertainment, and today’s list names my five favorite Christmas films.
These are films not only set during the holidays but with a clear theme and focus on Christmas.
If you’re still looking for last-minute gifts, or for an entertaining way to pass the hours until Santa gets here, you might look for these on DVD:
1. “A Christmas Carol”: Skip all the other film adaptations of Charles Dickens’ iconic holiday story and go straight to this 1984 made-for-TV version. His British accent is far from perfect, but George C. Scott is perfect as Ebenezer Scrooge, the heartless “bah, humbug”-muttering curmudgeon who is taught kindness, humanity and the spirit of Christmas by three Christmas spirits.
It also stars David Warner, who played the Evil Genius/devil character in 1981’s “Time Bandits,” as Bob Cratchit.
2. “A Christmas Story”: “You’ll shoot your eye out.” “It was soap poisioning!” “He looks like a deranged Easter bunny.” This 1983 comedy definitely is one of the most quotable Christmas movies around. It’s also very visually memorable: How could forget the leg lamp, the pink bunny suit, the crazy-looking department store Santa? IT wasn’t a box office hit, but it now is so beloved that thousands flocked recently to Ohio to visit the house used for the exterior shots, which is now a museum, for the movie’s 25th anniversary.
The cable channel TBS starts its annual “24 Hours of ‘A Christmas Story’” marathon at 7 tonight. Be sure to watch it at least once.
3. “It’s a Wonderful Life”: Frank Capra’s 1946 film wasn’t a box office hit, either, but now it’s considered a classic. It just isn’t Christmas until you hear Jimmy Stewart’s George Baily wishing “Merry Christmas” to the movie house, the emporium and the wonderful old building and loan.
4. “Elf”: This imaginative, whimsical movie is my favorite of the holiday films to come out in the last 10 years. Directed by Jon Favreau (he’s not “Iron Man,” but he directed that great movie, too), it stars Will Ferrell as a human raised by North Pole elves who goes on a grand adventure to New York City when he learns his biological father (James Caan) is still alive – but on Santa’s “naughty” list.
5. “White Christmas”: Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye sing and dance their way through this grand holiday musical, with help from dancing machine Vera-Ellen and songbird Rosemary Clooney. You can’t beat Bing crooning “White Christmas,” even if he had already done it in “Holiday Inn.”
-BAM
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I agree with most of your list. I’ve never been able to get into “Elf” though. I know a lot of people love it, but I just never can make myself sit through it. I keep trying because it has Bob Newhart in it and I love his deadpan wit. Maybe next year.