This week the girls take aim at Not so Christmas Movies...
There is heated debate as to what makes a movie a Christmas movie. Some believe that Christmas must be a focal point of the film. Others believe if there is anything Christmas-y in the movie it makes it a Christmas movie. Tonight the girls discuss movies often played around the festive season but are not actually considered Christmas movies.
But first, what were we drinking?
Sarah was drinking nothing because the fun police got her
Amy was drinking La Provincia Rosé
Bianca was drinking Baileys
Available from just about every bottle-o
Sarah opens this holiday bonbon with the fun fact that not all movies set at Christmas are Christmas movies. We know, it came as a shock to us too.
These movies are known as Christmas adjacent movies or not so Christmas, Christmas movies. These types of movies may be set around Christmas but really don't rely on Christmas as a part of the plot. They could be set at any time of the year. Examples of such movies are:
Die-hard
The Long Kiss good night
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
and more.
The Movie Sarah chose to talk about is one that she never really saw as a Christmas movie growing up, but now can relate to it more after having a child.
Gremlins is a gem of a movie that came out in 1984 and has been entertaining families ever since with it's cute main character Gizmo and devilishly funny but kind of creepy gremlins. It more of a Halloween movie than a Christmas movie.
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| Gizmo |
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| Gremlins aka Bianca and Sarah's movie night |
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| Amy's Night Out |
Amy is, as always, very opinionated about this topic. Given she doesn't like your typical Hallmark Christmas movies she is always in search of something else to watch during the holiday season. Basically, if it has anything to do with Christmas, it's a Christmas movie in Amy's not so humble opinion.
Amy decided to discuss a movie that always gets a run at her house around the holidays. Lethal Weapon was released in 1987 and is set around the holiday season with many scenes of the movie featuring Christmas elements.
In researching this topic, Amy discovered that it is no coincidence that two of her favourite Christmas action movies, Die Hard and Lethal Weapon, were set during the holiday season on purpose. Was it pivotal to the plot? No. Could the movies be set at any other time of the year without changing much to the movie? Absolutely.
However, the writer of Die Hard the movie, Steven De Souza explained in an interview that the producer of both movies, Joel Silver, liked movies set at Christmas so they would be played on TV around the holidays.
There you have it! People want an alternative to your traditional Christmas movies so some action movies are set during the festive season to give people something else to watch.
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| Christmas lights in the background make it a Christmas movie |
Bianca Listen, Die Hard is a great film, but saying it’s a great Christmas film is, at this point, well-worn territory. If you’re looking for an actual holiday-movie alternative to watch in December — something that takes place during the holidays, but isn’t It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Story, or one of the 97 versions of A Christmas Carol — there are many other Christmas-adjacent movies out there.
Movies that have that hint of Christmas, without all of the usual Christmas trappings and lessons. Movies that take place during the holiday season, and may feature brightly lit trees and snow — and maybe even a Christmas carol or two — but aren’t about learning the real meaning of the holiday or taking over for Santa because he’s injured.
And here's Bianca, thank you to www.vulture.com for writing the segment for her...
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Titanic is an undeniably great movie, but there’s an argument to be made that L.A. Confidential should have won the Best Picture, Oscar, that year. This terrific drama, based on the novel by James Ellroy, delves into police corruption and cover-ups in the LAPD of the early 1950s. It actually begins on Christmas Eve, with a violent police-station brawl, as several cops, juiced up on massively spiked eggnog, beat several Hispanic and black suspects in their cells. The headline splashed across the newspaper the next morning is “Bloody Christmas” (which happens to be the title of another movie that isn’t on this list). This leads us to the main plot: Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, and Kevin Spacey work to figure out who killed several people at a diner, including Crowe’s partner, who was involved in the Christmas Eve scandal.
This all sounds dark and serious, and it is, but having the movie set at Christmas works as something of a mental balm, demonstrating that there are some good and nice things in this world, even if it is filled with dirty things and bad people. Appropriately, the soundtrack features “The Christmas Blues” by Dean Martin, one of the great “sad” Christmas songs that should be a lot more popular than it is.
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