A Brief (and somewhat unlikely) Christmas movie round-up.

That's right gang, it's about that time of year for everyone to "get in the spirit" or whatever. It's Christmas time and if you're anything like me it means you'll be enjoying big feasts, a lot of drinking and watching a lot of Christmas movies at your parents' house. Now I always seem to have trouble picking what ones to watch so I always end up defaulting to Christmas Vacation, which as we all know is the best Christmas movie if all time. (Honourable mention goes to Home Alone) But let's take a look at a few others that you might not have otherwise thought about this holiday season. You may be pleasantly surprised.

NOTE: There will be no mention of "A Christmas Story." There will be no mention of BB guns or Leg Lamps or little fat blond kids (except maybe Jake Lloyd). I have never seen A Christmas Story. It's nothing personal, it's just one of those things that passed me by as a kid and now I have no interest in seeing it at all. There's probably a few things I liked, but passed you by when you were a kid too. Some may include:

The Snorks












CBC's Video Hits with Samantha Taylor



and finally, CHEWS









Ok? So we all know different things. On to this round-up!

Scrooged (1988)
Starring Bill Murray, Karen Allen, Carol Kane, & Bobcat Goldthwait

Scrooged may seem like an obvious choice, but I think (if you know it already) you'd be surprised at how many people have only seen it once or even not at all. You ever see Bill Murray and Bobcat Goldthwait in a movie together? It's a Christmas miracle! This is definitely the type of movie you wouldn't watch with your whole family, but definitely one you watch with your dirty uncle and your older cousins who curse and maybe your saucy aunt, you know, your cool relatives.

Gremlins (1984)
Starring: Phoebe Cates! Oh baby!

Gremlins is just the damn best. A Christmas movie where a bunch of little goblin things murder a whole town? Count me in - bigtime. Now take that crazy horror premise and add in the classic whimsy Chris Columbus (writer) and Stephen Spielberg (exec producer) are known for and you somehow have a family *Christmas* classic. How?! How did they make a movie about monsters killing a town a family Christmas movie!?!?? Sometimes you just really have to admit Hollywood is pretty impressive.

Die Hard (1988) & Die Hard 2 (1990)

Starring: duh

The first 2 Die Hard movies happen at Christmas remember? Now use this as an excuse to watch Bruce Willis totally kick-fucking-ass all Christmas afternoon when your mom wants to watch the stupid Disney parade and when your dad is angrily putting your little sister's new overly complicated doll house together.

The Ref
Starring: Dennis Leary and Kevin Spacey

I originally saw ads for The Ref when I was pretty young and, as I did with any movie that didn't have mutant turtles or Jean Claude Van Damme in it, immediately categorized it as a grownup movie that looked stupid. The Ref's actually pretty funny and overall not a bad flick as it turns out. Just make sure you're ok with Dennis Leary and can stand him yelling for like a full hour and half. Wait you cant? Then go watch Christmas Vacation, it's the best.