Christmas Movies

I love Christmas movies. Always have. In fact, I would watch reruns of It's a Wonderful Life again and again when I was a teenager, and I'd sit there and cry at the same place in the movie every time. (It's the part where George's brother shows up at the end, and makes a toast to his brother, George Bailey, "the richest man in town".

So far this year, I've seen some new Christmas films that I hadn't seen before. The first one was The Polar Express. A girlfriend of mine in college turned me on to the book by Chris Van Allsburg, and it is indeed a beautifully drawn and written book, a classic to this day. It's unfortunate that the movie turned out so badly. I was hoping that with Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks doing it, and the magic that's possible with animation these days, that it would turn out to be an enduring Christmas classic.

The fact is, it didn't turn out to be a classic, or even particularly memorable. I think I read another review somewhere that said the movie was "creepy." I agree. Creepy and dull.

We also watched A Christmas Story, another movie that a friend of mine in college turned me on to. (This one a male friend.) We watch A Christmas Story every year at my house, and we never get tired of it. And for some reason, I manage to forget most of the plot every year, so I'm still surprised and laughing all the way through the movie.

Christmas Vacation is a family favorite around here, and we haven't gotten around to watching that one yet. We will though, for sure.

Finally, I want to write about Elf. I didn't see it at the theater, and I'm so mad at myself. Jon Favreau put together a brilliant classic movie, seemingly with no effort, and it's about as different from Swingers or Made as you can imagine. Will Ferrell is lovable as hell, Ed Asner shines as Santa, and Bob Newhart steals the entire show as Papa Elf. The only dull character in the movie is played by James Caan, who performs adequately. His character was supposed to be dull anyway.

And my favorite scene in the movie is when the leading lady and Will Ferrell are singing "Baby It's Cold Outside" together. Beatiful stuff, that.

Merry Christmas everybody!