The TV special was made during Downey Jr’s career rough patch–you would swear he is high as a kite when it was filmed. Seeing the same actress who played Betty Rizzo in Grease play a homesick, shy Swedish maid is also weird.
Oh, it was made in conjunction with Jim Henson studios, so other characters were played by muppets.
We enjoyed The Holiday (Amazon Prime). It’s a lot like a Hallmark movie, but hey… tis the season.
“The Long Kiss Goodnight” is my “Die Hard”, I also consider “Falling in Love” a Holiday Movie, and “While You Were Sleeping”. “Family Stone” is already a classic Holiday movie, IMHO. I also like “Snowman” - great soundtrack, especially “I am floating in the air”, magical! Oh, and the first “Bridget Jones”!
Ah, Bridget Jones! When I first fell in love with Colin Firth. My only adult crush. Was in love with Mark Darcy for years. May have to go and find it on some streaming platform now.
Our family must sees:
The Ref
Christmas Vacation
White Christmas
It’s a Wonderful Life
Regular rotation but not every year:
Home Alone
A Christmas Story
Miracle on 34th Street
A Christmas Carol (1951 version though I watched the Muppet version this year and was pleasantly surprised)
The Bishop’s Wife
Fred Clause
Rankin/Bass animated offerings
Just dd and me:
The Holiday
Little Women (Winona Ryder version)
Love Actually
We just watched the Muppets Christmas Carol and enjoyed it.
Saw this in the Washington Post this morning. Never heard of it before the article. Has anyone watched it?
‘Hot Frosty’ is the Christmas miracle that keeps on giving
The secret to the Netflix movie’s snowballing success? Delivering exactly what it advertises.
https://wapo.st/3P9pD0w (gifted)
I watched Hot Frosty because it was supposed to be the best of the Netflix Xmas movies. I had previously watched The Merry Gentlemen. Keeping in mind that this is not my holiday, they were both well acted and watchable but obvious and totally illogical. (I liked the eye candy better in the latter movie.)
This is an amusing summary:
https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/tv/best-and-worst-netflix-christmas-movies-of-2024/
I used to love It’s a Wonderful Life and can still tear up even if I only turn it on at the line “To my brother George - the richest man in town.” But my feelings have evolved somewhat over the years and now think about how miserable George was for so many years. It’s really a very sad movie in that respect.
I go back and forth between Holiday Inn and White Christmas. I prefer Fred Astaire to Danny Kaye, although both are excellent. The former movie has some issues from its time and the latter is much more technicolor, so to speak.
Christmas with the Kranks! heartwarming! funny, too.
We re-watched The Family Man last night. Great movie IMHO!
We also watched This is Christmas thanks to this thread. It was sweet, like a step above a Hallmark movie. The video equivalent of having hot cocoa!
What’s cool about Muppets Christmas Carol is that so much of the dialogue comes from Dickens’ own words.
ALSO–another movie that’s sort of a Christmas Movie is Funny Farm with Chevy Chase. The last third of the movie takes place at Christmas time.
Also a great movie!
Re-watched The Polar Express earlier this week. It’s been a while since I last saw it, and I forgot how much I enjoyed it.
We watched The Polar Express, also!
Great fun.
And Home Alone 2, which the kids did not remember ( marvelled at running thru airports, NYC, pigeon lady in the park, Maggie Smith and Tim Curry as hotel workers…)
and Bells of St. Mary’s, a favorite of my Dad’s (which I did not remember) with Bing Crosby as priest and Ingrid Bergman as sister in charge of school. Latin hymns, the actor who played Clarence in It’s a Wonderful Life as a wealthy businessman).
Okay many may disagree, but we watched Red One Christmas night and really enjoyed it!
We could only get thru the first fifteen minutes of “Red One” before giving up out of boredom. Maybe we missed the good parts
Any comparison movies (or streaming series) with similar vibe? That might help us decide whether to give it a go.
Home Alone 2 is especially enjoyable as a time capsule. But poignant when he goes to the Twin Towers.
Off hand, no. Basically cute, silly, good actors, decent underlying message.
Oh, agree about Red One, good fun.
Kids weren’t with us but we enjoyed.