One of the greatest joys of the holiday season is firing up a great Christmas movie. While the holiday film market is clearly pretty limited, it's still produced a number of iconic titles that people watch religiously as soon as the calendar turns to November (if not sooner). Here are the 5 films I go to when I'm feeling like a festive motherfucker.
Note: As much as I love it, I don't consider Die Hard to be a Christmas movie. Complaints, insults and any other vitriol you may have regarding this take can be directed to me on the Twitter machine @cmaitlandmm
Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order):
A Christmas Story (1983)
A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas (2011)
Arthur Christmas (2011)
5.Bad Santa (2003): Giving and togetherness may be staples of the season, but there are times where you just need a break from all that merriment and those moments are why Bad Santa exists. With its band of reprehensible characters led by the sensational Billy Bob Thornton and non-stop morbid humor, Terry Zwigoff's cult classic is the official feel-bad movie of the holiday season.
4.Christmas Vacation (1989): Watching someone fail in spectacular fashion to give their loved ones the "perfect" Christmas has never been this entertaining. Clark Griswold's (Chevy Case) grand-scale meltdown in the last 20 minutes alone is enough to make this required yearly viewing.
3.Elf (2003): To put it simply, Elf is a god damn delight. Buddy the Elf, played with an absurd amount of enthusiasm and charm by Will Ferrell, is an immensely likable protagonist, the laughs are constant and above all, it's the rare film that reminded me that there is indeed a bit of warmth in the vortex of cynicism and bitterness that's otherwise known as my soul.
2.The Night Before (2015): Like all of Seth Rogen's best projects, The Night Before is a warm, hilarious film full of well-matched actors that is absolutely perfect for this time of year. Special shout-out to Michael Shannon for swooping in from the heavens (literally) and stealing the show from this cast full of seasoned comedy veterans.
1.Jingle All the Way (1996): If I ran a TV network, Jingle All the Way would get a Christmas Story-esque marathon every year. This timeless masterpiece has everything: Santa suit-clad con men pedaling knockoff toys to unsuspecting parents on Christmas Eve, elaborate fist fights aboard parade floats, reindeers destroying property, a kickass fake superhero that's cooler than 95% of the real superheroes, Sinbad as a psychotic mailman who makes Newman from Seinfeld look like the most reliable, dedicated worker in the history of the United States Postal Service and of course, Arnold Schwarznegger repeatedly screaming like he's in the sequel to Commando. Nothing will ever stop me from loving the shit out of this strange, hilarious movie.
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