Movies

The real "Christmas Movie" is whatever mediocre blockbuster comes out that year (Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc) that you can see in the theaters with relatives to get a few hours of reprieve.

So Wonder Woman 1984 is the Christmas movie of 2020.
Season 9 of Letterkenny for me.

Though we did watch Wonder Woman in anticipation of the new one. It wasn't NEARLY as good as everyone said it was, but it was far better than Aquaman.
 
Season 9 of Letterkenny for me.

Though we did watch Wonder Woman in anticipation of the new one. It wasn't NEARLY as good as everyone said it was, but it was far better than Aquaman.
Wonder Woman is aggressively okay until the finale, which is so bad, that it's pretty much all I remember about it.
 
Season 9 of Letterkenny for me.

Though we did watch Wonder Woman in anticipation of the new one. It wasn't NEARLY as good as everyone said it was, but it was far better than Aquaman.
The WB/DC universe is pretty dire. It doesn’t doesn’t take too much to get to the top of that list unfortunately. It was at least fun.
 
Season 9 of Letterkenny for me.

Though we did watch Wonder Woman in anticipation of the new one. It wasn't NEARLY as good as everyone said it was, but it was far better than Aquaman.

It's far better than any of the DC movies which is why everyone loves it. It's important for historical reasons but it would be a mid tier Marvel movie.

Wonder Woman is aggressively okay until the finale, which is so bad, that it's pretty much all I remember about it.

It's does that classic DC "blue energy black hitting orange energy blast" thing for like 20 minutes straight.
 
I chafe at people who insist Die Hard is a Christmas movie because they're often doing it 1) out of irony, because beyond its Christmas iconography, it's not very festive or Christmas-y, and the Christmas aspects are meant to darkly and comedically oppose the movie's violent nihilism as well as the protagonist's hard-as-nails wise-assery, and 2) to be contrary; any conversation I have about this matter involves the pro-side argument being "Joy to the World plays," or "I have a machine gun ho ho ho", and a knowing smirk.

I do think plenty of people do watch Die Hard around Christmas, which makes it a Christmas movie by habit (Royal Tenenbaums hits several quadrants for me: I first saw it with family on Christmas, it has the Christmas Time is Here song, and it being set in NY in winter is very Christmas-y) for those people. But looking at it purely as a movie with Christmas stuff, I'd put so many others (Shane Black's entire filmography) ahead of it.

For the longest time, the UK The Office was my Christmastime watch, simply because I first saw it when my sister came home from college for Christmas and put it on BBC America. So maybe I'm not the best judge of this.

In terms of Christmas-genre movies, my tops are Christmas Story, Muppet Christmas Carol, and Christmas Vacation.
 
I chafe at people who insist Die Hard is a Christmas movie because they're often doing it 1) out of irony, because beyond its Christmas iconography, it's not very festive or Christmas-y, and the Christmas aspects are meant to darkly and comedically oppose the movie's violent nihilism as well as the protagonist's hard-as-nails wise-assery, and 2) to be contrary; any conversation I have about this matter involves the pro-side argument being "Joy to the World plays," or "I have a machine gun ho ho ho", and a knowing smirk.

I mean, I take your point, and I don't necessarily disagree, but also, consider:

 
Obviously what gives these movies heart and makes them work is the idea that it's "Christmas" good will towards men and all that. But I would argue that without the Christmas theme of Die Hard, without the cheeky soundtrack, without the quips and jokes, without the intention of John to spend time with his family on Christmas it would be a lesser movie.
Any movie with Bruce Willis is never a lesser movie!
 
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I watch two things every Christmas: Batman Returns and the Christmas episodes of seasons 1-3 of Community.

This year, I’ll be adding Gerwig’s Little Women to that rotation.
Yeah, I am a big proponent of Christmas episodes of TV; Cheers, The Simpsons, The Office, Community, Parks & Recs, Bob’s Burgers, Happy Endings, 30 Rock, I will even watch the Christmas episodes of West Wing and Gilmore Girls anything that makes me feel a little warm and fuzzy.
 
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