31 Days of Christmas

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Seasons greetings, everyone!

Christmas is such a special time of year....except for on this board where only very few of us nominated any Christmas specials to begin with....but that's besides the point. Today, we will begin our journey through viewing the best Christmas films and specials ever put to screen. They range from jolly and uplifting to being downright dark and twisted subversions of the holiday spirit. Guess which one of those themes we're "most appropriately" starting with?

DAY 1:


South Park - A Woodland Critter Christmas

I'm not even going to summarize the plot of this one in case anyone hasn't seen it yet. Just trust me and go watch it. In my book it's one of the best Christmas Specials ever, and I love it as much as I love The Grinch or Charlie Brown's Christmas special, albeit for completely different reasons. Well, all except for one reason, in that this special, much like those other classics, is a penultimate representation of what makes a Christmas special great in general, but this one takes the stance of parodying everything that makes the genre so great yet also so goddamn formulaic and cliche. Rather than being cynical, though, it's a legitimately fun and hilarious special, just with a really twisted take on the genre that has just never been done in this way before.

Also, it has the best use of narration in any Christmas Special that I have ever seen. This one is just funny as hell, and the fact that even many non-South Park fans seem to enjoy it is a testament to just how damn good it really is.

[LumRanmaYasha]

It's indeed a great ep. I like all of the South Park christmas episodes, but there's no denying "Woodland Critters" is the best one, and one of the best christmas episodes of any tv show in general.

[Avaitor]

When I was a stupid kid, I actually didn't really like this one because I was disappointed that Mr. Hankey wasn't here. As a result, I, uh, actually haven't seen this in years.

I'm gonna change this later tonight and fix my mistake.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

DAY 2:



From the guy who directed Predator and The Hunt For Red October comes the greatest Christmas action movie of all time. I already talked about this movie when I re-watched it the other day, But it's definitely one of the best action movies ever, and the fact that it takes place on Christmas is all that you need to claim that it's a Christmas movie, because it's fucking Die Hard.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I've never seen any of the Die Hard movies.

I really need to fix that sometime.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Here's what I think of them:

Die Hard (10/10)- One of the best action movies ever.

Die Hard 2: Die Harder (6/10)- Meh, it's pretty mediocre.

Die Hard With A Vengeance (9/10)- Almost as good as the first movie.

Live Free Or Die Hard (8/10)- It's legit good. Don't listen to the haters who got pissed at the somewhat toned-down violence. It still keeps to the spirit of what makes Die Hard great at its core.

A Good Day To Die Hard (N/A)- I still have yet to see it.

[Spark Of Spirit]

My thoughts:

Die Hard (10/10) - Few action movies are better.

Die Hard 2: Die Harder (5/10) - A paler version of the original. Fun watch, though.

Die Hard With A Vengeance (10/10) - I would say the first is better, but this manages to be it's own thing while still keeping its Die Hard roots.

Live Free Or Die Hard (8/10) - Watch the R version. It's pretty much exactly what a modern day Die Hard should be.

A Good Day To Die Hard (6/10) - Not really like any of the other Die Hard movies, but still not as clever as the best ones. Still, overly maligned. Good brainless flick.

Overall I'd say it ties with Lethal Weapon as the best action series. American, anyway. I'm not familiar with overseas series.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Hmm, I see. It looks like most of the movies are worth checking out. I definitely want to finally watch the original sometime soon. I'll try to do it before the end of the month.

[Avaitor]

I can't recommend the first and third enough. Live Free's also pretty tight.

[Spark Of Spirit]

There's sort of a theme with the second trilogy (there's one more film according to Willis that will wrap it up) that lifts up A Good Day to me a bit more than 2. That being, it seems to be about John McClane getting his family back after losing them throughout the original trilogy. Live Free deals with his daughter, Good Day deals with his son, and I'm betting the last one will be his wife and will probably tie it all together.

It's a nice touch and it does help me like Good Day more than 2, but I still think it's a fairly decent action movie anyway. If you're a fan, you should probably watch it.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

DAY 3:



An undisputed classic. And I'd love someone to seriously tell me that they can't recite the lyrics to that iconic song by heart.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I haven't watched this in a while. I should remedy that.

But yeah, stone cold classic. Also easily the best animated adaption of a Suess book.

[Avaitor]

I still don't know what wahoo porridge is.

[talonmalon333]

A classic. It almost seems like more people have seen the special than read the book.

[gunswordfist]

you've never seen scarface or die hard?! what is wrong with you?!!