I have this on video, so it can be found. In fact, it’s available on Amazon, but in B&W. Color versions are available elsewhere.
Another completely ignored film is the 1992 filmA Midnight Clear with Kevin Dillon, Ethan Hawke and Gary Sinise. Highly praised by the critics, totally ignored by the public.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!
My all time favorite movie!
*In a world where carpenters get resurrected, everything is possible.
*
*Poor John. Who says poor John? Don’t everybody sob at once! My God, if I went up in flames there’s not a living soul who’d pee on me to put the fire out! *
Prince Richard:* Let’s strike a flint and see. *
As much as I hate Will Ferrell, his film Elf is always worth a laugh. Mostly for Peter Dinklage (“He’s an angry elf”).
Then again, I LOVE Zooey Deschanel. She could be reading the phone book, and I’d be paying rapt attention.
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn is a great Christmas movie in a sad, touching way.
Preferably the original 1945 version.
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. I’ve watched it almost every year since I was a wee one - except those years between when PBS stopped playing it and I found it on VHS.
Bert and Ernie do a “gift of the magi” thing and sing a sweet version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
Cookie Monster tries to write a letter to santa but gets so excited about the cookies he’s asking for, that he eats a pencil, a typewriter and a phone.
Bob and Linda sing “Keep Christmas With You” with a bunch of kids, in ASL.
Grover and Kermit talk to goofy 70’s kids.
Plus, it starts with a wicked live-action ice skating sequence.
I always look forward to watching Period of adjustment on TCM at christmas time. One of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen and can’t miss at christmas time is The man who came to dinner also usually on TCM.
I don’t know if it’s overlooked, especially on *this * board, but:
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
Okay, okay, it’s so horribly long and so horribly horrible that there’s only one way in the whole world to get through it: MST3K to the rescue!
Worth it if only for “A Patrick Swayze Christmas”.
Already mentioned, but The Ref, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, Elf, Home Alone and Love Actually are excellent choices all.
The Nightmare Before Christmas is enjoyable if you like Tim Burton’s stuff.
And it would be wrong of me to not mention The Star Wars Holiday Special
Oh, and how the hell have we forgotten Bad Santa. Maybe not overlooked, but certainly an untraditional X-mas flick.
Well, I think it’s deservedly overlooked, but ONE MAGIC CHRISTMAS definitely qualifies. It’s also the worst C’mas movie I’ve ever seen.
What about Die Hard 2? It’s a Christmas story.
On a double bill with the MST3K version of the Mexican movie “Santa Claus” – Good old-fashioned nightmare fuel, for the night before Christmas.
[Hijack]Have you seen the remake with Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close? The best thing about it is that it doesn’t have Katharine Hepburn’s over-the-top scenery chewing and the worst thing about it is that it doesn’t have Katharine Hepburn’s over-the-top scenery chewing. Stewart is as good as O’Toole but in a very different way, Jonathan Rhys Myers is a better Philip than Dalton was, the “and little boys” line is taken out, and Close plays a way more sedate Eleanor. My only major beef is that John is portrayed as a fat retarded oaf instead of Nigel Terry’s awkward adolescent schemer. Not as classic as the original, but not terrible either.[/Hijack]
Lion in Winter is a great movie to watch during the holidays and have a few people over with a quasi medieval theme (Cornish hens, hot bread, beer, etc.). Several of my friends give it the Rocky Horror treatment, saying things like “I’d hang you from the nipples but you’d shock the children” or “What family doesn’t have its ups and downs?” in unison, but it adds to the fun, especially when it has Black Adder’s Kpyzdnuts (Christmas) Carol as a chaser.
Is that the one with Mary Steenburgen and Harry Dean Stanton? I was going to mention it but couldn’t remember the name.
This is an old thread, but I’m reviving it to add a couple of contenders.
On the unexpectedly touching side, you have “The Man Who Invented Christmas” (2017), where Charles Dickens writes That Story. I don’t believe a word of it, but by golly you have to admire the twist, where the adult Charles, depressed and set-upon, is returned to his dismal childhood to learn the True meaning of Christmas - and Christopher Plummer turns up as Scrooge? Makes no sense, but this deserves to be a Christmas perrenial.
For a jolly seasonal goof, it’s “Jingle All the Way” (1997). Arnold Schwarzenegger battles Sinbad on Dec. 24 to see who can land the last Turbo Man action figure, without which Christmas will be decidedly un-Merry. Phil Hartman is in it! Martin Mull! Come on, you need this movie.
One which wasn’t around when this thread was started is Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale. The DVD comes bundled with Martians and the Rare Exports short.
Some of my recent favorites:
The Christmas Chronicles - Kurt Russell as Santa whose sled gets derailed by a battling brother and sister, who must then help him find it and his lost bag of toys. Tender, sappy, and touching, with sort of a John Hughes vibe to it.
A Christmas Horror Story - William Shatner as a disk jockey who functions as a framing device for several interlocking stories of Christmas gone horribly wrong.
***Christmas in Connecticut ***and The Holly and the Ivy are both classics.
Has no one yet mentioned ***Scrooge ***(1951) with Alastair Sim?
Two movies that are really downers and only tangentally related to Christmas are Tunes of Glory and All Mine to Give, but they seem to be aired every holiday season on PBS or TCM.
I don’t understand the hate for Trapped in Paradise. Good cast, nice movie. It’s even a 6.0 at IMDb.