Naughty and nice treats from your DVD grab bag

After being forced to sit through 90 minutes of hell at Christmas with the Kranks, I really feel like I need to cleanse my palate with a better Christmas movie. Sure, I may be slightly cynical, every now and then, but I enjoy a little Capra-corn just as much as anybody else. While Christmas with the Kranks and Surviving Christmas (on DVD this month) are examples of Christmas cheer gone wrong, here are a few that got it right.

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

Let’s start with the most obvious. You know I had to include this one on the list. This sweet tale, starring James Stewart as George Bailey, is universally loved for good reason. Director Frank Capra remains the king of “feel-good” movies (hence the moniker “Capra-corn”), and this is his crowning achievement. It’s a Wonderful Life strikes a chord with everybody because it so effectively affirms the value of the average, everyday good person.

The Family Man (2000)

Never, in my life, would I have expected to enjoy a schmaltzy romantic comedy with Nicolas Cage and Tea Leoni. What a pleasant surprise this movie turned out to be. In a twist on It’s a Wonderful Life, Cage plays a “successful” businessman living an empty, joyless life. On one Christmas Eve, he is given the opportunity to experience what his life could’ve been like, had he chosen family over career. The Family Man is as sappy as can be, but it works because both Cage and Leoni turn in outstanding performances.

Scrooge (1970)

Dickens’ classic tale, A Christmas Carol has been done a million times over, and there are many good versions. This 1970 musical version, starring Albert Finney as Ebenezer Scrooge, is my personal favorite. This one wasn’t too popular with most critics, and surprisingly few people have seen it. Finney’s acting is terrific, though, and seeing him transform from singing “I Hate People” to “Thank You Very Much” is just as fantastic now, as it was in childhood.

Home Alone (1990)

As with Vanilla Ice’s “Ice, Ice, Baby”, I doubt there are many grown adults who would admit they actually liked Macaulay Culkin’s acting debut. Maybe you’ll seem cooler by pretending you’re above the immature slapstick comedy and in-your-face cheesiness of Home Alone. But we all know you’re lying. You saw Home Alone, and liked it. Fourteen years later, it’s pretty much a guarantee that your kids will like it, and I’ll bet you might again enjoy it, too.

Bad Santa (2003)

Before I tell you why I love Bad Santa, I need to make one thing clear—this is not to be mistaken for a family Christmas movie, and children should definitely not watch it. Billy Bob Thornton plays a pathetic, lonely burglar, with a terrible addiction to alcohol. He and his vertically challenged cohort pose as Santa and his elf at a different department store every year, so that they can rob it blind on Christmas Eve. If you enjoy dark comedy, you’ll LOVE Bad Santa—it simply does not come any better than this. Amazingly enough, there actually is a surprisingly endearing and affecting story of redemption in Bad Santa, so it actually fits in quite nicely with more traditional Christmas fare.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

Surely, you’ve seen at least one of the Vacation movies. The original, of course, is loved by many, but the sequels are a bit more polarizing. Some people love Vegas Vacation; others hate it. Same thing goes for European Vacation. My two cents—Christmas Vacation is the best of them all, and even tops the original.

Personally, I’ve never felt the need to put on any false pretense, and pretend that I don’t enjoy slapstick comedy, so long as it’s done right. Can anyone honestly say that they don’t get a good chuckle out of any Three Stooges movie, or any old Three’s Company reruns? Chevy Chase, as Clark Griswold, fits in perfectly with Larry, Moe, Curly, and Jack Tripper, making Christmas Vacation a perennial classic in my household.

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Comments? E-mail Weindl at joewatchemovies@yahoo.com.