12 Days of Christmas Eve (2004)

12 Days of Christmas Eve (2004)

A businessman (Steven Weber) must re-live Christmas Eve twelve times to learn the true meaning of the season. Quick Review: Was there a need to combine It’s a Wonderful Life with Groundhog Day?  The first has been copied far too many times and the second pretty much covered the reliving-a-day genre.  This isn’t an artistic

Bad Santa (2003)

Bad Santa (2003)

An alcoholic, self-loathing, store Santa (Billy Bob Thornton) and a mastermind dwarf (Tony Cox) rob department stores at Christmastime. Here is a film that assaults the overripe icons of Christmas, laying low the sickly-sweet sacred cows with a “take no prisoners” roar—except it doesn’t.  It’s more like a troop of girl scouts knocking politely at

The Barber (2001)

The Barber (2001)

At Christmastime, in a northern Alaskan town where everyone is crazy from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), an old serial-killer-turned-barber (Malcolm McDowell) is back to his old tricks. Never quite hitting its stride as a comedy or as a thriller, The Barber is nonetheless an entertaining and well made confusion.  The murders are nothing special and

Beyond Tomorrow (1940)

Beyond Tomorrow (1940)

Three old men (Charles Winninger, C. Aubrey Smith and Harry Carey), with nothing to do for Christmas, toss three wallets into the snow, hoping that whoever finds them will return them and stay for dinner.  It works in two cases, reeling in a young girl and a down-on-his-luck Texan (Richard Carlson) who find each other

Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)

Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)

The trials and tribulations of a pleasant, silly “every-woman” (Renée Zellweger) as she attempts to lose weight, smoke less, and find a man who isn’t her boss (Hugh Grant).  It couldn’t possibly be that rude Darcy (Colin Firth), could it? Quick Review: Not a romantic comedy, but a comedy about romance, Bridget Jones’s Diary is

A Christmas Carol (1938)

A Christmas Carol (1938)

Miserly Ebenezer Scrooge (Reginald Owen), known for his cruelty, particularly to his employee, Bob Cratchit (Gene Lockhart), is visited by the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, and learns the meaning of Christmas. This MGM, high-gloss version of the Dickens classic is a long way from its weak, 1935 predecessor.  What a difference three

A Christmas Carol (1951)

A Christmas Carol (1951)

Miserly Ebenezer Scrooge (Alastair Sim), is visited by the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, and learns the meaning of Christmas. This British, B&W version of the well-known story is generally considered to be the finest version by critics and viewers alike, and I agree. If you’re reading this, chances are you are well

A Christmas Carol (1999)

A Christmas Carol (1999)

Another version of the Dickens’ story in which cruel Ebenezer Scrooge (Patrick Stewart)  learns the meaning of Christmas from three spirits. Quick Review: A garden-variety re-telling of A Christmas Carol, there are no huge mistakes, but also nothing to make it more than average.  The sets look a bit too much like a sound stage,

A Christmas Carol: The Musical (2004)

A Christmas Carol: The Musical (2004)

A musical version of the traditional Christmas story where old humbug Ebenezer Scrooge (Kelsey Grammer) learns the true meaning of Christmas from three spirits. Quick Review: With so many version of A Christmas Carol to choose from, I can be discriminating.  There’s always another to switch to, and I suggest doing so when this is on.

Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Magazine publisher Alexander Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet) arranges for a war hero to stay at his food columnist’s farm in Connecticut during Christmas.  The problem is that the columnist, Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck), doesn’t have a farm, or know how to cook. Quick Review: A combination farce and romance with a little wartime patriotism, Christmas in Connecticut

Christmas with the Kranks (2004)

Christmas with the Kranks (2004)

With their daughter, Blair, planning to be gone for the Holidays, Luther and Nora Krank (Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis) decide to skip Christmas and go on a cruise.  However, the neighbors, led by the dictatorial Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Aykroyd) are upset by this lack of tradition and start protests.  When Blair calls on Christmas

Christmas Vacation (1989)

Christmas Vacation (1989)

Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) plans an extravagant family Christmas for his wife (Beverly D’Angelo), kids (Juliette Lewis, Johnny Galecki), parents (John Randolph, Diane Ladd), and in-laws (E.G. Marshall, Doris Roberts).  But Griswold vacations never go as planned, and one disaster after another occurs, including the arrival of redneck Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid). The word that