Trevor

Everyone's been quiet lately.....

Just saw This Christmas in the theater.

I expected the predictable family drama with a Christmas setting. And while it was that, it was also excellent. Some great performances.

Anyone else seen this or Fred Claus yet? And are there any other holiday movies in the theaters right now?

Bluelitespecial

Well I am doing well and ahead of schedule from last year i am already up to 35, when I only watched 43 last year. Plus I am about to watch The Christmas Story for the first time this year.

FantasticVSDoom

Watched Fred Claus... Nothing special, but Ive seen much worse Holiday fare. Not a bad Sat. or Sun matinee.

Trevor

First time ever ?!! Or just first time this year? If first time ever, I envy both your willpower to resist this long, and the treat you have in store.

I almost saw it today, and will in the next couple of weeks. I have enough free tickets from Best Buy to see every movie that comes out for the next 6 months.

I think there is also some animated Christmas movie coming out next week.

The Monkees

I think Christmas Story is the most overrated movie ever made. I'm not saying I hate the movie, I enjoy it, but I feel that it is badly over played and not nearly as good as most people make it seem.

Bluelitespecial

Its the first time ever, I have never seen a Christmas Story. I bought the 2-disc dvd just so I can watch it during this challenge.

whitetigeress

I personally love The Christmas Story. I am waiting to watch it until Christmas Eve.

Darth Maher

I agree. It was fun and I had a good time watching it, but it's not like it ranks up there with "A Christmas Story" or anything. I'll add it to my usual holiday viewing next year.

Darth Maher

Yeah, I'll probably wait til Christmas Eve too and start with the DVD, then throw on TNT or TBS (whichever has the 24 hour marathon) and let that run all day as we go about our daily routine. That is what we have done the past 5 years or so and we love it. We never get sick of it.

Trevor

Just had a bizarre coincidence right now. I'm watching a Christmas episode of Alice, Mel's Christmas Carol. The special guest star is the great Jack Gilford, who I've always loved.

As he makes his first appearance, I click on the link to read about him and see how long ago he died. And just as Mel says to his character, "you died 17 years ago", I see on IMDB that Jack Gilford died exactly 17 years ago.

It was the exact same second.

Numes

I haven't seen this one for a while. Is this a holiday episode? If so, I missed it. I'm always game for more South Park holiday episodes.

whitetigeress

It was on the Christmas DVD set. I have watched so much in the last week that I don't really remember what it was about.

Trevor

I don't seem to recall an obvious holiday theme either, other than gift giving and shopping fads, wiki page.

Trevor

For anyone trying to complete the extended checklist, I found a couple of films that we could fudge to count for pre-1900.

Both are slight stretches, but I've searched and I don't think we'll find anything else, as most films that old have not survived.

The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots is a big stretch to be used as a St. Andrew's Day film.

Much easier, is a snowball fight short from 1896 called Bataille de Boules de Neige.

Numes

I watched the Star Wars Holiday Special a few days ago. The copy I had was 9 minutes, so I wasn't quite sure if it was the complete special or not. It had a story about Boba Fett saving Luke and R2 from some crazy red dragon type monster and a talisman that made humans go into a coma.

Anyways, in the copy I have, nothing in it had anything to do with the holidays. I would not count it (unless there is more that I didn't see)

My 2 cents.

whitetigeress

If you want me to take it off my list..I will.

But, it was on this dvd.

Trevor

The full special, in all it's atrocious glory, is about 45 minutes long, and does have some holiday themed elements.

I think the whole thing can be found online.

Heck no, if it is on that DVD it counts, in my unbinding opinion.

whitetigeress

Excellent!

Numes

Ok. I think I know why it was only 9 minutes now. When I downloaded it (like 5 years ago), the name of the file name had something to do with Boba Fett (I renamed the file later), I bet that piece was cut out of the whole special just because it was Boba Fett. That makes MUCH more sense.

Just given a taste of that one story, I can't wait to view the whole thing!

Trevor

Anyone know of a Criterion DVD that we could count?

Did The Royal Tenenbaums happen around the holidays?

Bluelitespecial

I think I am going to hit close to 80 now, I have found so many good movies from everyone's lists that I have never seen before such as "A Christmas Story", and I found "Love Actually" for 6.50 at Target for my list.

Greg MacGuffin

No. Aside from the fact that it uses a Vince Guaraldi song from the Peanuts Christmas special, I don't think it's holiday-themed.

Trevor

Thanks. I think I'll delete the "Criterion" line from the checklist. If there are not more than 10 or so holiday themed Criterions, it wouldn't be fair to have such an exclusive item on the list. And so far, I don't see even one obvious qualifier in their catalog.

Fist of Doom

Yeah, they don't exactly go for holly, jolly titles. Though I'd love to see a Criterion edition of Ernest Saves Christmas, with a Roger Ebert essay booklet.

Trevor

I heard that they are actually close to releasing that, but are finishing up their Good Burger 3 disc set first.