My Favorite Christmas Movies

'Tis the season! One thing I love to do at Christmas is watch movies. I'm a bit of a film buff, and I get Christmas Day off from work, so I like to take the day to enjoy my presents and watch movies. And these are my favorite films to watch during the season:

 

Gremlins (1984)



Gremlins at first is a strange choice for a Christmas film. It's a film that combines elements of horror and comedy, released at a time when such a thing was popular in film (keep in mind, Ghostbusters was released the same year).

The film is about an inventor's son named Billy Peltzer who gets a creature known as a mogwai, which he names Gizmo. However, mogwai come with three rules of care: Do not expose to light (because light can kill mogwai), do not feed after midnight (because mogwai turn into monsterous gremlins), and do not get a mogwai wet (because it makes them reproduce and create more mogwai). You can guess what happens next. Yup, gremlins wreak havoc all over a small town at Christmas time.

Why do I consider this a Christmas film? Well, mainly because it's set on Christmas. As for why I like to watch it on Christmas, because it's one of the only "horror" films I can stand to watch, and I have to admit, I sometimes do get a chuckle out of the gremlins' destructive antics. I like to laugh on Christmas, and Gremlins gets a chuckle out of me. Also, check out the sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch. It's a great sequel. It's much lighter in tone, more humor than horror, but the new variations of gremlins that appear are awesome.

 

A Christmas Story (1983)

 

 

Based on Jean Shepherd's book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, the film is actually narrated by Shepherd himself. It tells the story of a young boy named Ralphie Parker, who only wants one thing for Christmas: A Red Ryder BB gun, and the misadventures of his family during the Christmas season.

 

The film, to me, is required Christmas viewing. Heck, on Christmas day, TNT plays the film for 24 hours straight. It's a sweet funny film with many memorable scenes and moments, from the father's feuding with the neighborhood dogs and his lusting over his 'special award' (a lamp in the shape of a lady's leg), to Ralphie's fantasies regarding his one desired gift, and of course, his getting the bunny suit.

 

Funny thing about this film, I always thought it was set in the 1950s, but according to director Bob Clark's commentary on the DVD, the film is set in a nebulous time period in the 1930s-1940s. Huh.

 

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

 

 

 

Much like A Christmas Story, this film focuses on a family's misadventures during the holiday season. In this film's case, it focuses on the Griswolds, especially their mishap-prone patriarch Clark Griswold, played by Chevy Chase.

 

The film was written by John Hughes, who based it on a short story he wrote for the National Lampoon magazine called "Christmas '59". In the years since its release, it has become a Christmas classic.

 

Clark Griswold desires to have a "good old fashioned family Christmas", but as typical for the Griswolds, disaster erupts. Everything goes wrong, from bickering family members to Christmas lights refusing to cooperate, even a rampaging squirrel. Through all of this, Clark learns what Christmas means to him.

 

This was my favorite Christmas movie as a kid, mainly for an epic tirade Clark spits out near the end. There are many scenes like this that I still remember perfectly, and have for years.

 



Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)

 

 

 

You know how many superheroes have origin tales? Superman, rocketed to earth from the doomed planet Krypton. Batman, death of parents leads him to take of the life of a crime fighter. Spider-Man, bitten by radioactive spider and learns a lesson about power and responsibility from a tragedy. This film was an attempt to tell the origins of Santa Claus, produced by the team of Alexander and Ilya Salkind, who also produced the 1977 Superman film.

 

The film tells how a peasant named Claus ends up becoming the Santa Claus we know of today, and also tries to explain other aspects of the Santa Claus mythos, like how his reindeer fly, and how he manages to ascend chimneys. The film also focuses on an elf named Patch, played by the late, great Dudley Moore. An inventive elf, and feeling unappreciated, Patch goes out on his own, and falls under the wing of an evil toymaker named B.Z., the step-uncle of a rich girl Santa befriends. B.Z., played by John Lithgow, seeks to displace Santa as the provider of children's toys on Christmas, and with Patch as his pawn, he just may do it.

 

Critics blasted the film, but I personally consider it a cheesy guilty pleasure movie. And personally, I liked the ides of exploring the origins of one of pop culture's most well-known icons.

 

Die Hard (1988)

 

 

 

This is admittedly, the most unusual choice for Christmas viewing, but I consider it a Christmas film because it's set on Christmas.

 

Starring Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman, the film is based on Roderick Thorp's 1979 film Nothing Lasts Forever. NYPD cop John McClane comes to Los Angeles to visit his wife Holly, only to find himself being the only man that can stop a team of terrorists who attack the building they are on. However, the terrorists' true motives are actually not about politics...

 

This film showed that Bruce Willis, who was mainly known for comedic performances on TV (One word: Moonlighting), could not only be an action star, but be a bankable one. Die Hard was a critical and box office smash, creating a franchise that has encompassed five films, with a sixth in preproduction. Yeah, it's about ready to start competing with Star Trek for amount of sequels.

 

This is one of my favorite films. Willis's McClane is hilarious and awesome, and the film is very cleverly-done, playing with a lot of action film tropes. If you're looking for an action-packed film to watch on Christmas, Die Hard is for you.

 

And that's the list of my favorite Christmas films. Turns out they're all from the 80s, ha ha. I guess that decade was a good one for that kind of film. Anyway, I wish you all a Happy Holidays, and happy viewing!



Adventures in Pokemon Y Part 5: Route 4 and Lumiose City

With the Santalune Gym conquered, there really isn't a whole lot to do left in Santalune City. As such, my journey must go on...after picking up some supplies, of course.

When attempting to leave the city to go to Route 4, a girl remarked to me that I was one of the trainers to get a badge from the Professor. Turns out her name is Alexa, and she is the older sister of Viola, the gym leader I beat. She's a journalist. She was very impressed with my victory over her sister, so she gives me this item called the Exp. Share. This could be a useful item in training Pokémon. She also told me that she works at a publishing house in Lumiose City, and if I have a big story for her, I can stop by. That was...interesting. At least I managed to get a useful item out of the exchange.

After getting some supplies, I went to Route 4, aka Parterre Way. The Route is one of the more beautiful routes I have seen. It essentially is a giant garden, with a huge fountain halfway through the route, and several hedge mazes in the corners of the route. It's quite a beautiful sight. The Route also has its fair share of Trainers to battle and wild Pokémon to catch.

During my exploration of the Route, I encountered a Flabebe (I knowit's missing the accents, but have no idea how to type them), and captured it. What was interesting about this little Pokémon was she was of a new type: Fairy. Yup, much like Generation II, which introduced the Dark and Steel types, X and Y have introduced Fairy. I'll have to look up its strengths and weaknesses before I do anything with it. Maybe in the next new games, they will have a Fairy-type-based Gym.

I had also found a Poison Barb. Neat. I'll maybe give to my Butterfree after it gets Poison Powder.

At the end of the Route, I encountered these two people, a man and a woman. They explained to me that Flabebe, one of the Pokémon I got, was a Fairy-type. The woman is acting bonkers, screaming the new Type turns the entire match-up system on its head. She introduces herself as Sina, who might need to cut down on the caffeine. The man reveals his name is Dexio...yeah. Dexio. That's his name.

...Where do these names come from?

Anyway, they want to show me the way to Professor Sycamore's lab. On the way there, Dexio gives me a TM, Return. He explains that it's a move that works better the more I walk around a Pokémon. That makes sense, actually. You keep a Pokémon in your team for long periods of time, they start to bond with the trainer, and over time, that bond grows. I have heard that friendship has benefits for Pokémon's stats. I'll have to look into that.

I go through a tunnel, and I find myself in Lumiose City. And this place is HUGE. I think it might be even bigger than Castelia City in Black/White. I have heard that this city is modeled on Paris, which makes sense considering the BIG HONKING TOWER in the center of the city, and the fact that Kalos is modeled on France.

I don't know what to make of this place. There's just so much to see and do, and I have no idea what to do next. So for now, I'm just going to follow Sina to the Pokémon Lab. On the way there, I spotted this poodle-like Pokémon walking around. Heh heh, I caught one of those in Pokémon X. I had also overheard this couple talking about the many cafes in town. I did check one out on the way to the Lab, called the Café Introversion, so I'll have to look around to find the rest.

However, exploring the town isn't quite as easy as one thinks. Turns out quite a bit of the city is suffering a blackout. As a result, most of the city is off-limits. I wonder how they lost power. According to Bulbapedia, the Gym Leader here, Clemont, specializes in Electric-type Pokémon, so I'm guessing that he's got something to do with it. Maybe he's the cause. Would be interesting to see a villainous Gym Leader in a Pokémon game.

Anyway, I'd better get to the lab. I wonder what the Professor wants there for me...

Pokémon Obtained:
Garfield (Skitty)
Bebe (Flabebe, Yellow Flower variant)
Rosie (Budew)
Buzz-Off (Combee)
Mothra (Vivillion) - Evolved from Spewpa

Lack of Posts

My apologies for the lack of posting lately. Something funny is going on here. The site says that the web browser I use is not detected, and I can't fix it.


As a result, I can't seem to post videos and pictures on here without lots of problems, and I want to use those to spice up my posts, so they are not boring walls of text. My apologies to anyone this inconveniences.