"Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho."

Another Christmas movie. Die Hard (1988) holds a special place in my heart. Not only is it one of my favourite Christmas movies, it's also one of, if not my favourite action movie(s). The movie is actually based on a novel by Roderick Thorpe called Nothing Lasts Forever, which was a sequel to The Detective (which in turn was a film starring Frank Sinatra, and on another note Willis made his debut in an uncredited role in The First Deadly Sin which starred Frank Sinatra, it's always six degrees in Hollywood). Bruce Willis stars as John McClane, a New York cop visiting his wife and kids in L.A. on Christmas Eve, they seem to have hit a bit of rocky patch his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) as even reverted back to her maiden name Gennero, however Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), the leader of a group of German terrorists take over the Nakatomi Plaza (Holly's place of work)

The film is action packed from start to finish, with a number of great action sequences, excellent quips and wonderful characters, take Ellis (Hart Bochner) for example, a complete weasel, but utterly memorable because of it, Reginald VelJohnson as Al Powell is also great as are Paul Gleason, Robert Davi, Grand L. Bush and William Atherton. Some of my favourite moments include sending the dead terrorist down in the elevator in tinsel, a Santa hat and the words "Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho" written on his top. I didn't mention Alan Rickman in the group of other great characters earlier because I feel he deserves special mention, certainly one of my favourite villains of all time.

Probably the most kick-ass action packed Christmas movie. This movie is probably among my top movies of all time. Bruce Willis' movie career was born from this movie and you can see why. Recommended.

Since Christmas is coming up I like to get in the Christmas spirit by watching Christmas themed films. (I used the word Christmas 3 times in one sentance), so in the upcoming weeks I'll probably watch many of the following (if not all of them): Gremlins, White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, Die Hard, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Scrooged, Bad Santa, The Muppets Christmas Carol, Santa Claus The Movie, A Christmas Story and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I watched the first of many Christmassy movies today... Elf (2003)

Now I'm a big fan of Will Ferrell (forgetting he made poo like Kicking and Screaming and Bewitched) and he is great here as the man child Buddy. Originally Buddy is a baby in an orphange that is visited by Santa Clause (Edward Asner) who sneaks into Santa's sack and is brought back to the North Pole, he is adopted by Bob Newhart and raised as an elf despite towering them by many feet, one day he find's out he is not actually an elf and sets off for New York city to find his real dad (James Caan).

That's where a bit of culture clash comedy comes in, New Yorkers (as least how they are portrayed in films and television) keep themselves to themselves, Buddy is over excited, his first visit to his dad doesn't go to well and ends up by mistake getting brought into a Gimble's Christmas display and he excited when he hears the news Santa is coming, in this time he notices a girl (played by the lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely Zooey Deschanel). One as to assume/hope Buddy is a virgin at this point, cause the thought of him bumping uglies with a elf is pretty scary. Anyway, after hearing Zooey Deschanel singing in the shower and duetting with her (and scaring her), the Santa comes and Buddy uncovers him as not the real Santa and the two fight with Buddy ending up in prison, he uses the phone call to ring his dad, who comes up and takes Buddy for a DNA test, it is proved they are father and son. He comes to stay with the family, dad hoping he gets over the elf fixation and it's revealed he's pretty distant to his family

The film is certainly a family comedy (even though bits of are a bit rude, Will Ferrell is great in the lead and Zooey Deschanel shines (yes I was making an excuse to post a picture of her), I laughed out loud a few times and I'm sure it's going to be seen for many Christmas Days to come by everybody. The film will give you your Christmas spirit, whether you like it or not.

A Christmas Story: Special Edition I was sad to hear about a week ago, the passing of actor Darren McGavin, now McGavin had a long and varied career that went back to the 1940s and he had roles in films such as The Man With One Arm and to later work such Raw Deal and Billy Madison as well as the lead role in the series Kolchak: The Night Stalker, but there will always be one role I’ll eternally remember him for playing the father in the 1983 movie A Christmas Story. I think there will be a lot of people affected by his death just because of how much this movie did and still means to them. A Christmas Story, maybe is the ultimate christmas movie, (you can say It’s a Wonderful Life etc), this is the Christmas movie even though you feel like your coming more like Scrooge want to watch every Christmas. Never mind that it's set in the 1940s, the plight is generational for any kid that wants the one thing, in this case Ralphie dreams of owning a Red Rider BB gun (brilliant recurring line- "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out"- but it's really about family and been together. This film as everything in a Christmas movie: a scary santa, a leg lamp, the pink bunny suit, when Ralphie swears and as to have his mouth washed out with soap, it geniuenly when I was younger put me off swearing.

The film did end up inspiring the Wonder Years and it's hard to believe it was based on a book (In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd) that was a series of writings for Playboy. The casting is perfect from the young actors- Zack Ward as the school bully Scut Fuckus maybe the greatest bully ever committed to celluloid- as her the adult actors, which parents aside are usually horrible people who shouldn't be near kids.

Outstanding Christmas movie, that I could watch anytime for warm fuzziness that as aged well, (Geek note: Yes I do own Christmas Story figures) and along with Kolchak, for anybody would be a fitting tribute to the memory of The Old Man- Darren McGavin (thanks for the memories!) (R1 only)

*****