A Cinematic Advent Calendar 2021

[ProfXtacy]

Star Wars Holiday Special.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by ProfXtacy

Star Wars Holiday Special.

Wasn’t that broadcast at Thanksgiving?

[DefLeppard]

Am I breaking any rules here if I'd have to mention It's a Wonderful Life (1946) !? Surprised this film hasnt made it here so far!

[HotRats]

Has anyone mentioned Love Actually?

Or if your tastes are darker, the excellent thriller The Silent Partner, which is a remake of Danish film Think Of A Number/Tænk på et tal It would be nice if Indicator or someone could do an edition with both versions

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by AnnThrope

You forgot K9 AND COMPANY!

As so many before me have tried...

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

Wasn’t that broadcast at Thanksgiving?

It was shown for the first and last time on Nov, 17, 1978

[ProfXtacy]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

Wasn’t that broadcast at Thanksgiving?

We don’t have thanksgiving in the UK.

[floor pie]

[CrockettandTubbs]

Originally Posted by DefLeppard

Am I breaking any rules here if I'd have to mention It's a Wonderful Life (1946) !? Surprised this film hasnt made it here so far!

Never seen it.

Still waiting for a proper 'Special edition" to come along...(Ah! The 2019 edition has some extras).

Other end of the Xmas film spectrum - I saw Nat Lamp's Christmas Vacation last night: pretty good, but weird casting: Rusty is now about 2 feet shorter and with dark hair!

Juliette Lewis I can just see as an older Audrey.

I am aware the children have always been played by different actors

A bit like me with Back to the Future, (I prefer Pt II) - I prefer European Vacation to the first one.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by HotRats

Has anyone mentioned Love Actually?

So I thought Love Actually was enjoyable but it’s very 2003, complete with Ant and Dec and Parkinson, and with transphobic and ableist jokes that haven’t aged so well, and perhaps if they had wi-fi they could resolve some of their conflicts online! A prime minister desperately knocking on every door isn’t perhaps the greatest strategy, and the notion he can get the SAS to murder a woman’s ex boyfriend is perhaps a little terrifying. I’m not sure Neeson is the best father when he’s telling his son to play the drums just so he gets a girl, and is then okay with him hopping across airport security to tell her that he loves him as the cops chase after him. Firth also is pretty bad for leaving a family gathering as he just arrived and the children yell that they hate him, just so he can get an international flight to propose to marry a woman we’ve barely seen any romantic development with through a language barrier. The film also offers the porn fantasy that flying to the US will immediately get you a room full of smoking hot women who want constant sex, and that performing simulated sex scenes for a film will end with you dating your costar after you’ve already seen every inch of her (maybe it does happen?) I feel like both of those flights would be really expensive though especially at Christmas and not worth the love of your life.

The film tries to do a cross-sectional unity between characters, especially with the airport opening which directly references the final calls during 9/11 and being close to loved ones. However all the romances are comfortably middle class, white and straight. Which fair enough, it’s probably the territory Curtis knows best, and there are lovely moments such as Thompson suspicious of Rickman having an affair (the expensive jewellery from the department store wrapped up for Christmas, the scene with Rowan Atkinson and the Joni Mitchell CD). But it’s also clear the Black characters are small supporting roles, and the most the film can get to a queer subplot is attending an Elton John party and Nighy declaring his love for his manager (which might not even be romantic/sexual and isn’t followed up).

That said I’m glad I finally saw if after all these years when so many people seem insistent it’s the best Christmas film ever and a masterpiece.

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

It was shown for the first and last time on Nov, 17, 1978

Though it’s true Christmas begins before then. Pret were doing a Christmas sandwich in July, Sony launched their Christmas TV channel in September, and I started seeing festive drinks and food in October/November. I think some Christmas films end up released around November too.

I know The Star Wars Holiday Special gets a lot of hate but it has some charm, bringing the cast back together, expanding the Wookiee and Kashyyyk mythology, Jefferson Starship (Airplane), the Boba Fett cartoon, the Bea Arthur cantina number.

Originally Posted by floor pie

I definitely want to make time for this one, never seen any Sono before.

Originally Posted by CrockettandTubbs

Other end of the Xmas film spectrum - I saw Nat Lamp's Christmas Vacation last night: pretty good, but weird casting: Rusty is now about 2 feet shorter and with dark hair!

It’s actually the only Lampoon film I’ve seen, though I know they get progressively worse going into the 90s/00s.

Originally Posted by AnnThrope

You forgot K9 AND COMPANY!

The audiobook read by John Leeson is a pretty fun listen and expands on the story.

Originally Posted by DefLeppard

Am I breaking any rules here if I'd have to mention It's a Wonderful Life (1946) !? Surprised this film hasnt made it here so far!

ODEON are showing it on the 7th so I think I’ll go. Only seen it on DVD before!

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

So I thought Love Actually was enjoyable but it’s very 2003, complete with Ant and Dec and Parkinson, and with transphobic and ableist jokes that haven’t aged so well

You think that's dated badly, what about the loveable DJ who - hey, this funny - shags a lot of underage schoolgirls in The Boat That Rocked because, y'know, he's a lad? The temporal spiking of About Time - its loveable hero basically using time travel as Rohypnol (and unlike when an unreformed Bill Murray does it in Groundhog Day, he gets the writer's seal of moral approval) - is also pretty dodgy. There's definitely some seedy nudge nudge undercurrents in his work.

[DefLeppard]

Originally Posted by CrockettandTubbs

Never seen it.

Still waiting for a proper 'Special edition" to come along...(Ah! The 2019 edition has some extras).

Not sure if you're referring to WB CE box sets or SC CE box but US 4K SB is highly recommended; Carries both b&W as well as colourised versions!

I was expecting Asian SB labels to give this one a special treatment but nothing yet!

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

ODEON are showing it on the 7th so I think I’ll go. Only seen it on DVD before!

[Kyle15]

Can't help but be that guy: Nightmare Before Christmas remains my favorite Christmas film since I saw it theatrically the month it premiered.
A Christmas Story is a typical go-to. And yea I gotta say it...

[Show spoiler]Black Christmas.

Honorable mention to Eyes Wide Shut for setting during Christmas. Interesting undercurrents with that one.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by Kyle15

Honorable mention to Eyes Wide Shut for setting during Christmas. Interesting undercurrents with that one.

Not only that, but in the scene where Cruise and Kidman are wrapping Christmas presents, they're actually wrapping Kubrick's Christmas presents: my former boss at Warners (one of only three people at the studio Kubrick would deal with between films) and a friend in technical services there both received that art book without knowing who wrapped them until the film came out.

[Modman]

Silent Partner - Plummer plays a b*itching Santa!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iHck4aO33IE

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by Modman

Silent Partner - Plummer plays a b*itching Santa!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iHck4aO33IE

And Mrs Claus too.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by Kyle15

Can't help but be that guy: Nightmare Before Christmas remains my favorite Christmas film since I saw it theatrically the month it premiered.

Not sure what October has to do with it?

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

Not sure what October has to do with it?

Uhh...

You know how some people see a movie the day/week/month it premieres?
And some see it later, much later on home video?

I saw it the month it premiered. Yea?

My use of since is a preposition, not a conjunction.

[BluBonnet]

Yes, so did I... guess that's why I think of it as a Halloween movie. But it can be both!

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

Yes, so did I... guess that's why I think of it as a Halloween movie. But it can be both!

I consider it both. It's more of a Christmas movie than Eyes Wide Shut.