Christmas: Are they shoving it down our throats too early?

[Drtooth]

Will's great in certain movies, like The Good Guys and Zoolander. Certain ones he just seems overused and unfunny, like that Land of the Lost ...well... I can't even call it a remake since it was more of a lame self parody than anything. I just never cared much for Elf, but gave it a few chances before I decided I didn't like it. I liked the fleeting bits with Bob Newhart though. I'm just not a huge Christmas movie person, with certain exclusions, like Christmas Story that like everyone's required to like, and the first 2 Home Alones.

 

[CensoredAlso]

the first 2 Home Alones.

I'm very proud to be a fan of the first two Home Alone's because they're so of my generation. My father thinks they're utterly useless movies, lol. I'm always trying to explain to him that they're funny, and also have a lot of heart.

 

[D'Snowth]

I don't think HOME ALONE 3 is really deserving of the hate it receives, though I can understand why people don't like it: for one thing, it was made during John Hughes' lighthearted and silly period, and another, it lacked the original cast from the first two. But, let's be honest, Mac Culkin would have been too old to do another movie, and I don't think the other castmembers would have had their hearts in it... I think Hughes made the right decision to focus on another cast of characters without trying to recast Kevin, Harry, and Marv (which is one of the reasons why HOME ALONE 4 failed, Danny Stern was even approached about reprising Marv, which he felt was a travesty to the original movies, and flatout refused). HOME ALONE 5 tried that approach, so I gave it a chance, but I couldn't make it past the first three minutes, the acting from everybody was terrible.

Interestingly enough, Hughes' original draft for HOME ALONE 3 was to have Harry and Marv change their ways, move to the suburbs and start new lives for themselves and their families, while Kevin apparently busts out of jail and hunts them down to exact his revenge.

 

[Drtooth]

Interestingly enough, Hughes' original draft for HOME ALONE 3 was to have Harry and Marv change their ways, move to the suburbs and start new lives for themselves and their families, while Kevin apparently busts out of jail and hunts them down to exact his revenge.

That would have been an awesome movie, but it seems pretty dark. Like a dark parody of the original films. Like the bit in Spy Hard (or Robot Chicken, which did something similar), but played much, much darker. Like almost Venture Bros levels of dark, deconstructiveness.

While I take back that they can't make any decent Christmas specials anymore with Murray, I really think they lost the touch with Christmas movies. I'd admit, I'm open to seeing Arthur Christmas if nothing else is on or I'm very, very bored, but it seems they could have told that story in an hour on television, and even then the main concept is far from original. Heck, Rudolph was one of the first Christmas specials and it already parodied/lampshaded the different thinking elf trope. Really, for a Christmas special that's essentially the most mainstream of the mainstream, it managed to stealth parody and subvert things that others would later play straight. It's... it's in reverse!

As for the other kind of Christmas movie... let's see. We had a bad Meet the Parents ripoff with James Gandolfini, we had that horrible one about how the Kranks were worse than Hitler for not wanting to hang up Christmas decorations (Dan Akroyd! NOOOOOO!!!!)... I'm not going to mention Kirk Cameron's slow decent into Madness as anything, and I already ripped that apart in another thread (it made TVTrope's So bad it's Horrible page)... and then bad sequels to Christmas Story and Jingle All the Way. Seems like everyone's trying to be one of the 4 main Christmas movie comedies... Jingle all the Way, The Santa Clause, Christmas Vacation or Christmas Story. There's plenty of comedy in the holiday... where's someone putting that to good use?

Also... enough with the Christmas Carol! That Jim Carrey Mo-Cap nonsense should have been that story's genre killer. Actually, i;m starting to think it was.

 

[mr3urious]

Great news for you, Drtooth: Prep & Landing will be airing on ABC tonight, along with its sequel! I've never seen it before, so I'd like to give it a go!

 

[Drtooth]

I found that out a couple nights ago on the TV listings. Right after the Elf thing too. Still have to watch Earthworm Jim: For Who the Sleigh Bell Tolls. Probably do it later.

Glad to see ABC's airing something besides that annoying Christmas Decoration contest show. Seems they really weren't making anything specifically new other than the Toy Story bit.

 

[D'Snowth]

Lol @ Julia Louis-Dreyfus doing Christmas commercials when she's Jewish; then again, Barbra Streisand's got that over-caffinated rendition of "Jingle Bells."

 

[mr3urious]

Prep & Landing and its sequel were really good specials. I enjoyed Dave Foley as the lead role, and all the high-tech gadgets used to prepare Santa for his arrival at people's homes. I wonder if Santa also has a CD (cookie/cocoa dispenser) in his sleigh?

I also really liked the concept of "coal elves" in the sequel that deliver coal to naughty children and give them an opportunity to redeem themselves. And Wayne's little (in age) brother was really entertaining.

 

[Drtooth]

I think the original one is cute, but I love how the story gets expanded into the second one. There's a third one they made to replace the Charlie Brown Christmas Tales they pad the hour with so they don't have to edit the heck out of A Charlie Brown Christmas, but I don't think it aired this year.

Anyway, I saw the live action Fairly Oddparents Christmas movie. It was meh, and I liked it the least of the three. You would have think Jorgan would've been happier that Santa was taken out of commission, at any rate. Seems that they dumped a bunch of concepts from the cartoon, and there's no mention of the fairies giving up their magic to Santa. I dunno. I missed 10 minutes in the middle and nothing important happened. I give props for Nicktoons running some of the Christmas episodes of things (they aired the Invader Zim one!), but it seems that most of the other shows, even ones they air constantly that have Christmas episodes aren't getting air time.

 

[mr3urious]

There's a third one they made to replace the Charlie Brown Christmas Tales they pad the hour with so they don't have to edit the heck out of A Charlie Brown Christmas, but I don't think it aired this year.

Sadly, no. But an actual 3rd P&L installment is being planned in the future. I hope Thrasher the reindeer gets more screen time in that one.