It's Christmas time, and that means it's time for cinemas and televisions across the nation to overdose on holiday specials. There are seemingly hundreds of Christmas movies scattered across the entertainment world come November and December. Some are silly. Some are serious. Almost are sappy. But a few manage to become true classics, beloved for years. Here are the OnMilwaukee.com staff's personal favorites.
Jeff Sherman: "Love Actually" ... and "A Charlie Brown Christmas" ... and "Muppets: Letters to Santa" ... and "John Denver and The Muppets: A Christmas" ... and "The Polar Express"
This is a tough one. There are so many great Christmas movies. Add in all of the TV programming, and it's a bountiful bunch of cheer. For adults, "Love Actually" still scores. It's about as good as a romantic comedy can get, and it's thoughtful. For a more family fun viewing, I'm going with these: "A Charlie Brown Christmas," "Muppets: Letters to Santa," "John Denver and The Muppets: A Christmas Together" (hard to find, though) and, even with its freaky animation, I love the modern classic "The Polar Express." However you say happy holidays, Milwaukee, watch a good Christmas flick or two this season. It's good for the soul.
Carolynn Buser: "Scrooged"
I love Christmas and all of its happy sparkly self, so it is a bit ironic that one of my favorite holiday movies is "Scrooged," a dark but hilarious 1988 modern-day (or as modern as 1988 can be now) adaptation of "A Christmas Carol." But somehow, Bill Murray as the angry, surly Frank Cross gets me every single time. The three ghosts who visit him throughout the night, trying to get him to change his jackass ways, are wacky and entertaining, though Carol Kane is my favorite. I would hit Jack Cross in the head with that toaster too, Carol.
There are plenty of laughs and some heart-touching moments in "Scrooged." So go ahead; give yourself a present this year and put this one under your tree, especially if you want your "Christmas Carol" served up just a little bit differently this year. You will be glad you did. It'll "Put A Little Love In Your Heart," just like the song sung at the end of the movie.
Bobby Tanzilo: "A Charlie Brown Christmas"
Ugh. I don't really have a favorite Christmas movie, but I do love animated holiday television favorites. Everything from Rudolph to Frosty to Charlie Brown – I love them, wacky old technology and all. But thanks to Vince Guaraldi's timeless and instantly recognizable soundtrack, I think "A Charlie Brown Christmas" takes the cake ... you know, the holiday fruit cake.
Lori Fredrich: "The Nightmare Before Christmas"
I've always been a fan of the quirky bits. So, despite having been raised on a diet of "It's a Wonderful Life" and other idealistic Christmas flicks, I've always had a talent for finding something charming in bizarre, dark things. It's probably the reason I've always been fond of the 1964 animated version of "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer," mostly thanks to the wit and whimsy of those sad little misfit toys.
The same applies to the "The Nightmare Before Christmas, which successfully (somehow) combines two of my very favorite celebrations of the year, but does it in a way that takes a bit of the cheesy shine off of Christmas and lends it (at least temporarily) to Halloween. In classic Tim Burton fashion, it gleefully mixes light with dark and jolly with macabre. And Danny Elfman's soundtrack gets stuck in my head. Every. Single. Time.
Molly Snyder: "Elf"
Call me a cotton-headed ninny-muggins, but I could watch "Elf" any time of year – and I have. No matter how many times I view this, every time Buddy says lines like, "This place reminds me of Santa's Workshop except it smells like mushrooms, and everyone looks like they want to hurt me," I laugh out loud. And just like movies this time of year tend to be, there's an element of sap that softens any looming Scrooge-ness I might harbor because Buddy is just so freaking sweet. "I thought maybe we could make ginger bread houses, and eat cookie dough, and go ice skating, and maybe even hold hands," he says at one point. See?!
Jimmy Carlton: "Elf"
No doubt much to the cinematic chagrin of pop culture editor Matt Mueller, my favorite Christmas movie is "Elf." It came out in 2003, when I was a sophomore in high school, and the eternally sophomoric comedy stylings of Will Ferrell really resonated with me. More than a dozen years later, it still resonates with me because ... I am a simpleton who likes the same stuff I've always liked and is averse to trying anything new. Also, because Zooey Deschanel is at her whimsically enchanting apex, and not yet obnoxiously over-quirky Jess. I've watched that movie between 60-85 times with my little sister, and it always leaves us calling our parents cotton-headed ninny-mugginses (shout-out, Molly, above) for a couple of days, which is good. "Elf" forever!
Matt Mueller: "A Christmas Story"
A couple years back, I wrote a little countdown about the best Christmas movies, and I claimed "A Christmas Story" to be the perfect Christmas film. Approximately 1,460 days later ... nothing has particularly changed. Bob Clark's ridiculously quotable 1983 cultural touchstone still perfectly captures the holiday spirit in all of its charms and chaos, tears and triumphs.
No other Christmas movie can feel so particular in its bizarre details – the pink bunny suit, the leg lamp, the taste of Lifebuoy as compared to other brands of bar soap – yet so universal when it comes to the overall emotions of the holidays and family. The story's mix of sincere sentimentality and cynicism works just as much for me now as when I first watched it many, many Christmases ago.
Maybe most importantly, though, "A Christmas Story" is possibly only the most quoted movie in my household (or at least tied with "Goodfellas," "Bull Durham" and "Airplane"). It just wouldn't be Christmas in the Mueller house without someone yelling "Bumpuses!" or imitating Mrs. Schwartz's shocked, shrill "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?"
Actually ... wait, I changed my mind. My pick is the Hulk Hogan classic "Santa With Muscles."
