Uncommon movies provide unconventional take on holiday theme
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Sean Darrell
Issue date: 12/14/07 Section: Arts & Leisure
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Die Hard (1988)
Nothing says Christmas like "Now I have a machine gun, ho-ho-ho." That's right, Die Hard starring Bruce Willis as John McClane is my all-time favorite Christmas movie. The whole movie is full of Christmas-laden cheer, from the Run DMC song "Christmas in Hollis" to "Let it Snow" as the sounds of gunfire and explosions give you that warm, cozy feeling.
Allan Rickman as Hans Grüber plays one of the best villains ever and even acknowledges some Christmas miracles with "You want miracles? I give you the F-B-I." What would Christmas be without Bruce Willis in his I-just-woke-up-on-the-floor-haven't-shaved-in-a-week-my-wife-left-me-my-kids-don't-recognize-me-I-haven't-had-my-coffee-and-I-can't-find-my-bleeping-cigarettes role, popping one-liners and shooting bad guys? "Yippee-ki-yay [explicative]" and a Happy New Year!
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
You can't have a Christmas without Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, cursing out the Christmas lights, watching Randy Quaid dumping poo from his RV toilet down the sewer, watching the cat get fried by a power cord and having the SWAT team storm his house.
It's standard fare for the Griswold family in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. This movie is close contender with Die Hard because it is so tear-inducingly funny.
A favorite line pretty much sums it up: "How could things get any worse? Take a look around here, Ellen. We're at the threshold of hell."
Sometimes our own holiday family gatherings make you sympathize with Mr. Griswold.
We've all had our share of insane holiday events, but nothing makes you more appreciative of your Christmas experience than to see the hell the Griswold family is subjected to.
"When Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of [explicative] this side of the nuthouse."
Now if that is not the true spirit of Christmas, I don't know what is.
Gremlins (1984)
There's lots of green and white all over the city, but it isn't the snow-covered Christmas trees. It's a white-mohawked Gremlin running around terrorizing the town.
Steven Spielberg's Gremlins, the story of the mishandling of the mogwai Gizmo, whom countless cats have been named after, takes place during Christmas and I always think about this movie as well when this holiday rolls around.
We've all received some weird presents for Christmas but, "Does your father usually give you vicious little monsters for a present?" I think not.
The Christmas feel throughout the city makes for interesting holiday-themed death sequences. Phoebe Cates as Kate Beringer telling her story about how she found her dad dead in the chimney dressed like Santa trying to surprise them with presents is still stuck in my mind.
How about that for a Christmas present?
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