Merry Christmas Movies!

Ha! I bet you thought I forgot about doing something here this week, didn't you? Well, you were absolutely...right. Hey, when it's tough to keep track of what day it actually is, things fall thru the cracks.

But, I have a little bit of time before work, so since it's actually December now, I guess it's okay to dust off a sadly 'normal' topic for this particular list - some of ArcLight's favorite Christmas movies....

Well, of course DIE HARD is on the list. Might as well put it first so you have some idea of what I consider a "Christmas Movie."

Likewise - LETHAL WEAPON. When you look in the film dictionary under "Buddy Cop Movie" this is the movie that comes up. Along with DIE HARD, it makes a perfect action-film double feature, no matter what time of year it is.

So this is a great movie on its own, of course. But I have to admit, one of my favorite things about it is how I conned my aunt into taking me by only showing her pictures of the cute, cuddly Gizmo. For half of the film she was laughing it up with the rest of the audience and for the other half she was cowering in her seat, half-covering her eyes and asking why I ever brought her to such a movie. And then there's Phoebe Cates's character's story about why she hates Christmas, that had me and my aunt nearly busting at the seams while people around us thought we were horrible for thinking it was funny before Cates even got to the end. Good times.

A true Christmas tradition for me. When I was in the military, those of us who didn't go home for the holidays would rent all of the SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT movies and watch them in the dorm's dayroom. Keep an eye out for Scream Queen Linnea Quigley's scene.

Okay, A CHRISTMAS STORY has become a real, traditional, Christmas classic now, with 24 hour marathons on TV and everything. Maybe it seems weird for inclusion on this list with action and horror films, but darn it - Darren McGavin is great in general and particularly great in this.