When I was growing up, the big Christmas film to watch was A Christmas Story. This movie came out when I was about six or seven years old and, as I recall, was re-released each holiday season for the next several years and then it was picked up by network and basic cable stations and played to death. Yet we still tuned in annually.
This is not to say that we didn't watch other Christmas movies, but A Christmas Story remained a favorite.
Until recently.
For whatever reason, I just got tired of the film. I don't think I've seen it in a good four or five years. I avoid TBS like the plague on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day due to their 24-hour ACS marathon and I never opened the DVD that was given to me as a gift some years back.
I also got burned out on other holiday titles such as National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and It's A Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street, among many others.
However, last year, I realized that I needed to have some kind of Christmas film to watch or it just wouldn't be the holidays and, therefore, I tuned into what is quickly becoming my go-to holiday classic... Elf with Will Ferrell.
I'm not a Will Ferrell fan. He has his moments here and there but he typically annoys me. However, Elf just works for me. The James Caan character plays well into my typical humbug attitude about the season. Ferrell's enthusiasm and whimsy are highly infectious. Plus it costars an uncharacteristically blonde Zooey Deschanel, a characteristically droll Bob Newhart, and has a cameo from Peter Dinklage. And there's lots and lots of maple syrup!
What are your go-to holiday films?
I rewatched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to see if maybe my opinion on its sheer crapitude has changed in the three years since I last saw it in theaters... it hasn't. The movie still sucks.
I also gave a shot to this year's Lawless also starring Tom Hardy and Guy Pearce. I watched half of it and the movie couldn't draw me in at all so I stopped.
Oh well. You live and learn.
Source:
http://www.kapgar.com/my_weblog/2012/12/you-look-at-yourself-youre-an-elf.html