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Every year, cable networks and superstations force-feed us their holiday programming, playing the same old movies season after season. Where’s the fun in that? What do business execs know about what’s good and what’s crap? Wouldn’t you rather have a bunch of film junkies, who know a thing or two about entertainment, recommending movies for you?
Our editorial team has been from one end of the North Pole to the other, compiling a list of the best and worst holiday flicks for you to pick at and we’ll just tell it like it is. So each day we’ll give you a Christmas movie to examine -- for better or worse.
Tell us where you agree, where you disagree and what we’ve missed! 'Tis the season to be picky, and coming up with this list has been a bit tricky, so without further ado ...
Hollywood.com's 2009 Holiday Movie Guide: Holly-Day Films List
Today's Pick!
Love Actually
This holiday fairy tale is filled with complex characters and situations that bring some dramatic moments to a film that otherwise would be as soapy as a bathroom sink. But the comedy, courtesy of Hugh Grant, Rowan Atkinson and Bill Nighy keeps coming and balances out the tales of a wife discovering her husbands disloyalty, a lonely office drone caring for a mentally ill sibling, and a widower teaching his young step-son lessons in love. I often hear that the film gets a bad rap for being naïve about love, but that’s why people watch these types of movies – to see a happy ending “as only celluloid can deliver”.
Yesterday's Pick!
Fred Claus
Vince Vaughn plays the all too human younger brother of Santa in this farce where the big man needs help at the north pole in the days leading up to Christmas. Lesson learned: Don’t send a man to do an elf’s job. Although it boasts a cool concept, Vaughn is essentially the same as he always is and in a high concept project like this, I wanted to see another side of the funny man. The film ultimately falls flat because can’t decide whether it wants to be naughty or nice, alternating between nastiness and whole-heartedness. I like both, but together it makes the movie feel completely artificial.
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