Friday, December 9, 2011

Jessie's Must-See Christmas Movies

I hate to state the obvious, but this will be a list of my favorite Christmas movies.

1. While You Were Sleeping - My family watches this movie every year. It is a die-hard (am I right?) Wood tradition. There is nothing not to love about it. "Are you ok? 'Cuz it looked like he was, ya know... Leaning." My dad is constantly throwing out "John Wayne was a tall man" when our family conversations get totally convoluted. :-) There is also the awesome scene of a newpaper kid wiping out on his bike.

Favorite Quote: "I don't want any flowers from you, I am not wearing black underwear, and I definitely do not want to move in with you, Jo.. JACK."

2. White Christmas - Classic. Enough said. ~ Ok, of course I have things to say. I have been watching (most) of this movie every year since I was a child. We had a VHS recording (pirated off tv) of White Christmas that somehow was missing the last quarter of the movie. So for me, it usually ended soon after the "Choreography" number. Which I LOVED because of Judy's awesome outfit. My other favorite part was when Judy did the rehearsal dance with random dance guy right before they realize that Betty's leaving. My other favorite part is when the guys dress up and do "Sisters". Danny Kaye is hilarious. *Sidenote, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was also awesome - although now I want to see The Court Jester, because according to Wikipedia it is his most accomplished performance.

Favorite quote: "How does a guy that ugly have the nerve to have sisters?" - "Very brave parents."


3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas - I'm not going to make some grand sweeping statement here like, "Jim Carey at his best", because I don't have time to go into that kind of argument or the research and thought required. But it could be. It's at least in his top 3. Regardless, I love love his Grinch and Christine Baranski's well-placed sighs of longing and regret, along with Molly Shannon's wonderfully casual theft of a traffic light for her Christmas decorations make it just that much better. But I think my favorite is Jim Carey's impersonation of Ron Howard as he tells Max how to play Rudolph. So awesome.

Favorite Quote: "We're gonna die! We're gonna die! I'm gonna throw up, and then I'm gonna die!" *Sidenote: I said this a lot during my pregnancy with Stella.

4. Four Christmases - And now we come to a new personal favorite. It's been on tv a lot, so I hope I don't get burnt out on it, but I love Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon, and Jon Favreau, and Kristin Chenowith. And Tim McGraw. And Mary Steenburgen. And Robert Duvall. And especially Katy Mixon. At some point this Christmas I will be doing my impersonation of her character. Especially if we play taboo: "This game is so easy."Her accent is the BEST.

Favorite quote: "I'd also like to give myself another gift. The gift of a scheduled c-section that goes routinely." - "Don't most women want to have a baby naturally?" - "Yeah, most women who haven't done it before!" also, "YEA-YUS!" (during taboo game).

5. Home Alone - I haven't seen this one in forever, but it makes me cry at the end and I remember laughing so hard I couldn't breathe when I was younger.

Favorite Quote: "Ma'am, I'm eight years old. You think I would be here alone? I don't think so."

6. The Santa Clause - I have a very special place in my heart for the Tool Man, and he did not disappoint in this movie. I prefer his reluctant, scroogy Santa to any other Scrooge, and that includes Bill Murray. Oh yeah. I went there.

Favorite Quote: (referring to the reindeer) "These are...a gift. Probably from the cable company. We're getting the Disney Channel now. Merry Christmas."

7. A Christmas Story - Another one I haven't seen in a long time, but a good one. I don't think there is much to say about this, except that the narrator is my favorite. That guy deserves an Oscar. So does whoever wrote the script. I should probably check to see if they did if I'm going to make statements like that. :-) This is another one that is hard to pick just one favorite quote from.

Favorite Quote: "Getting ready to go to school was like getting ready for extended deep-sea diving."

8. Miracle on 34th Street - There are things to love about each version, but the one I enjoy watching the most is the newer one with Elizabeth Perkins and the little girl from Matilda. I do love Maureen O'Hara, but her Doris was a little too harsh for me. I really like Elizabeth Perkins. And Natalie Wood is a great Maria, but you can't touch Matilda. Although now that American Horror Story is a thing, I'm not sure I can watch Dylan McDermott the same way. And to be honest, he's a touch creepy in the 1994 version. I did love Dark Blue though. That was a good show.

Favorite Quote: "We're going to get the catalog house, right. That's what I wanted. He took the picture from me and told me he will get it. I'm sorry Mother, but you are wrong."

9. Die Hard (see, I was making a joke earlier) - Nothing says "deck the halls" like jumping off a roof tied to a fire hose. (Not original with me, but I love that line, and it is so true). He saved everyone. Merry Christmas.

Favorite Quote: "Nine million terrorists in the world and I gotta kill one with feet smaller than my sister." and "Yippe-ki-yay, M**-F**." (I know it's a bad line, but it's become a classic and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I like it.)

Now obviously, there are some typical favorites that didn't even make my list. Elf is great, but it's not a must-see for me. It's just on tv way too much. I've never been in love with It's a Wondeful Life or any version of A Christmas Carol and I couldn't tell you why. And I just noticed that there are only 9 movies on my list. What movie would you add?

3 comments:

Suzanne Slagell said...

Elf for sure, but my favorite Christmas movie of all time is Love Actually.

Jessica said...

I l.o.v.e. While you were sleeping! Merry Christmas! :)

jess said...

Good call on Love Actually Suzanne. You have to appreciate that it was the original 14-intertwined-romantic-comedies-at-once movie. Good job to the Brits on that one. :-) It is also possible that Elf is a must-see, but I don't realize it because I see it every year several times. And I love pretty much everything Zooey Deschanel does, so there's also that.