Holiday Thoughts ‘14—National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) ****

PG-13, 97 min.

Director: Jeremiah Chechik

Writer: John Hughes

Starring: Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Juliette Lewis, Johnny Galecki, Randy Quaid, John Randolph, Diane Ladd, E.G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, Miriam Flynn, Cody Burger, Ellen Hamilton Latzen, William Hickey, Mae Questel, Sam MacMurray, Nicholas Guest, Julia Louise-Dreyfus, Nicolette Scorsese, Keith MacKechnie, Brian Doyle-Murray, Natalia Nogulich

So, when you’ve been watching a movie once a year for almost thirty years, it’s easy to forget what originally spoke to you about it. With a movie like “Christmas Vacation”, which plays upon the universal truths of what gets under our skins about the holidays, it evolves with the ages. What makes me laugh today probably didn’t when I was 18, and the things that had me holding my gut then, may only stir a chuckle today.

Holiday Thoughts ‘14—Die Hard (1988) ****

R, 131 min.

Director: John McTiernan

Writers: Jeb Stuart, Steven E. de Souza, Roderick Thorp (novel “Nothing Lasts Forever”)

Starring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald Veljohnson, Paul Gleason, William Atherton, Hart Bochner, James Shigeta, Alexander Godunov, Bruno Doyon, De’vereaux White, Andreas Wisniewski, Clarence Gilyard Jr., Joey Plewa, Lorenzo Caccialanza, Gerard Bonn, Dennis Hayden, Al Leong, Gary Roberts, Hans Buhringer, Wilhelm von Homburg, Robert Davi, Grand L. Bush, Bill Marcus, Rick Ducommun

It’s a Christmas movie! OK??!!!!

Holiday Thoughts ‘14—Happy Christmas (2014) ***

R, 82 min.

Director/Writer: Joe Swanberg

Starring: Anna Kendrick, Melanie Linskey, Joe Swanberg, Mark Webber, Lena Dunham, Jude Swanberg

Joe Swanberg’s “Happy Christmas” is not going to be the next holiday classic. In fact, I’m guessing it’s the type of movie people don’t really want to see for the holidays, which might explain its summer theatrical release date. And yet, it has come out on home video formats just in time to remind us of the things we don’t necessarily appreciate as much as we should during the holidays—our relatives.

Holiday Thoughts ‘14—Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever (2014) *

G, 85 min.

Director: Tim Hill

Writers: Tim Hill, Jeff Morris

Starring: Grumpy Cat, Aubrey Plaza (voice), Megan Charpentier, Daniel Roebuck, Russell Peters, David Lewis, Evan Todd, Isaac Haig, Shauna Johannesen, Casey Manderson, Tyler Johnston

The circumstances that led to my watching “Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever” are surprisingly mundane. It was a Friday night. The kids decided to spend the evening at their cousins’ house. Ang was going through e-mail that had piled up through the week. I was doing some similar cleaning on my computer. I figured the wife and I would take in a couple of catch up television episodes while we waited for the kids to get back. I turned the TV on just to have some noise in the background. Before I knew it, Ang had gone to bed and I was stuck watching a bad Lifetime Christmas special starring an Internet meme sensation from a year ago.

Holiday Thoughts ‘13—It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) ****

NR, 130 min.

Director: Frank Capra

Writers: Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Frank Capra, Jo Swerling, Philip Van Doren Stern

Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers, Beulah Bondi, Frank Faylen, Ward Bond, Gloria Grahame, H.B. Warner, Todd Karns, Samuel S. Hinds, Mary Treen, Frank Albertson, Virginia Patton, Charles Williams, Sara Edwards, William Edmonds, Lillian Randolph

My father was an alcoholic. I’m not sure how much this impacted other aspects of his life. It only affected mine to a noticeable degree on a few occasions. One occasion was the last time he ever took a drink. He was pulled over and arrested for DUI in the early morning hours of my 13^th birthday. Although this was the only time his drinking really disrupted anything in my life; it was strange and confusing, but not some sort of character crushing experience for me. For my mother, I’m sure it was the last straw. If he hadn’t changed then, my life would’ve been very different from there on out.

Holiday Thoughts ‘13—The Family Man (2000) ***

PG-13, 125 min.

Director: Brett Ratner

Writers: David Diamond, David Weissman

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Téa Leoni, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Piven, Saul Rubinek, Joseph Sommer, Makenzie Vega, Jake Milkovich, Ryan Milkovich, Lisa Thornhill, Harve Presnell, Mary Beth Hurt, Amber Valletta, Francine York, Ruth Williamson

I’m pretty sure I’ve written this before, but like many, I wasn’t thrilled with “The Family Man” the first time I saw it. It was kind of a let down. It wasn’t as funny as I’d hoped. It wasn’t as happy as I’d expected. I think that’s because it never lets its main character off the hook.

Holiday Thoughts ‘13—National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) ****

PG-13, 97 min.

Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik

Writer: John Hughes

Starring: Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Juliette Lewis, Johnny Galecki, John Randolph, Dianne Ladd, E.G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, Randy Quaid, Miriam Flynn, Cody Burger, Ellen Hamilton Latzen, William Hickey, Mae Questel, Sam McMurray, Nicholas Guest, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Nicolette Scorsese, Brian Doyle-Murray

So, Ed Helms has been cast to play the lead in Warner Bros. reboot of the “Vacation” movies. Rumor is he won’t be taking the role of previous patriarch of the Griswold clan, Clark, made famous by Chevy Chase. Instead Helms will be playing Rusty, Clark’s ever changing son from film to film, played in “Christmas Vacation” by Johnny Galecki of “The Big Band Theory” and in the original “Vacation” by Anthony Michael Hall.

Holiday Thoughts ‘13—Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) zero stars

NR, 81 min.

Director: Nicholas Webster

Writers: Glenville Mareth, Paul L. Jacobson (story)

Starring: John Call, Leonard Hicks, Vincent Beck, Bill McCutcheon, Victor Stiles, Donna Conforti, Chris Month, Pia Zadora, Leila Martin, Charles Renn, James Cahill, Ned Wertimer, Doris Rich, Carl Don

This movie is just awful. Of course, how could anyone expect it not to be? Like many awful movies however, it’s not as fun as you’d hope it would be to experience its awfulness. The main problem… it is oh so incredibly dull. I fell asleep on this movie twice before reaching the half hour mark. I tried one last time with a little more sleep and some caffeine and somehow made it through. I might’ve still nodded off a bit at one point.

Holiday Thoughts ‘13—A Christmas Story (1983) ****

PG, 94 min.

Director: Bob Clark

Writers: Jean Shepherd (also novel “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash”), Leigh Brown, Bob Clark

Starring: Peter Billingsley, Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Ian Petrella, Scott Schwartz, R.D. Robb, Tedde Moore, Zack Ward, Yano Anaya, Jeff Gillen, Les Carlson

Narrator: Jean Shepherd

What is left to say about “A Christmas Story”? It’s a holiday classic that many people watch over and over, every Christmas holiday season. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t watch this movie sometime before December 26^th, and yet it continues to delight and please and bring newfound joy each and every year.

Holiday Thoughts ‘13—Band of Brothers: Bastogne (2001) ****

TV-MA, 64 min.

Director: David Leland

Writer: Bruce C. McKenna

Starring: Shane Taylor, Rebecca Okot, Damien Lewis, Ron Livingston, Neal McDonough, Kirk Acevedo, Bill Armstrong, Ben Caplan, Doug Cockle, Michael Cudlitz, Tony Devlin, Dale Dye, Dexter Fletcher, Scott Grimes, Frank John Hughes, Robin Laing, James Madio, Donnie Wahlberg

“Bastogne” is probably my favorite episode of the HBO World War II mini-series “Band of Brothers”. I include it in my Holiday Thoughts this year because it happens have a scene in it that takes place on Christmas Eve 1944 with the German soldiers along the front line that surrounded the American soldiers singing “Silent Night”. And boy, does it look cold there. If you’re ever feeling bitter because of the cold outside, think about what our men in uniform did for us on those cold wintry nights in Belgium, without any gloves, with limited supplies, without hot meals, and having to bed down in a hole in the ground.

Holiday Thoughts ‘13—Hi-Life (1998) *½

R, 82 min.

Director/Writer: Roger Hedden

Starring: Campbell Scott, Katrin Cartlidge, Eric Stoltz, Moira Kelly, Peter Riegert, Carlo Alban, Daryl Hannah, Charles Durning, Saundra Santiago, Tegan West, Bruce MacVittie, Michelle Durning, David Aaron Baker

I found this movie in a list of obscure “Christmas” movies. It isn’t really a Christmas movie. It just takes place in December, so there’s a good deal of holiday references. It’s also not very good. I’d call it the cinematic equivalent of a bunch of friends getting together and throwing together their own stage production just for the heck of it. Each person gets to do something he’s always wanted to do, or really likes to do. There are cliché stories and some fairly inappropriate situations considering this is supposed to be a comedy. I mean is accidentally shooting someone really a good opportunity for some humor between friends. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just a little too uptight about guns.

Holiday Thoughts ‘13—Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) ***

G, 108 min.

Director: Norman Jewison

Writers: Melvyn Bragg, Norman Jewison, Tim Rice (book, lyrics, based on the rock opera by), Andrew Lloyd Webber (music, based on the rock opera by)

Starring: Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson, Yvonne Elliman, Barry Dennen, Bob Bingham, Larry T. Marshall, Joshua Mostel, Kurt Yaghjian, Paul Thomas

Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I know. “Jesus Christ Superstar” is not a Christmas movie. The birth of Jesus isn’t even mentioned in it. It’s all about his death. But, he’s not entirely unrelated to the subject of Christmas. In fact he’s the reason, as they say. So I’m counting it.

Holiday Thoughts ‘13—Love Actually (2003) ***½

R, 135 min.

Director/Writer: Richard Curtis

Starring: Bill Nighy, Gregor Fisher, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Chris Marshall, Heike Makatsch, Martin Freeman, Joanna Page, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Andrew Lincoln, Keira Knightley, Hugh Grant, Martine McCutchen, Laura Linney, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Alan Rickman, Rodrigo Santoro, Lúcia Moniz, Billy Bob Thornton, Michael Fitzgerald, Rowan Atkinson, Ivana Milicevic, January Jones, Elisha Cuthbert, Adam Godley, Claudia Schiffer, Shannon Elizabeth, Denise Richards

It seems people have had more trouble than usual getting into the Christmas spirit this year. That’s certainly the case in my home. Our elf didn’t even show up until this past Saturday. We haven’t broken out the Christmas songs 24/7. We haven’t wrapped any gifts, and most importantly, we haven’t yet watched our regular Christmas movies. No “Christmas Story”, “Lethal Weapon”, or “It’s a Wonderful Life”. It just hasn’t felt right for them. In an effort to ease us into the Christmas Spirit this past weekend, my wife and I decided to go kidless for our first holiday film, “Love Actually”.

Horror Thoughts ‘13—Toy Story of Terror (2013) ***

TV-G, 22 min.

Director: Angus MacLane

Writers: John Lasseter (characters), Andrew Stanton (characters)

Voices: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Carl Weathers, Stephen Tobolowsky, Timothy Dalton, Wallace Shawn, Don Rickles, Kristen Schaal, Kate McKinnon

Several years ago, the filmmakers who made the movie “Shrek” restarted the tradition of holiday specials starring popular animated characters from feature films. Finally, the animators at Pixar have gotten into the game of lending their characters to the holiday special with the first “Toy Story of Terror” to celebrate the upcoming holiday of Halloween. With all the original voice talent returning to their popular roles, the animators at Disney/Pixar have put together yet another fun “Toy Story” romp.

Penny Thoughts ‘13—The Lion in Winter (1968) ***½

PG, 134 min.

Director: Anthony Harvey

Writer: James Goldman (also play)

Starring: Peter O’Toole, Katherine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, John Castle, Nigel Terry, Timothy Dalton, Jane Merrow

I’d never seen “The Lion in Winter” until recently. I didn’t know how deliciously pointed and witty it is. Watching Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn dance their duel of words with each other is like watching a world championship of some sort. This is politics that puts our political campaigns to shame. This film should be required viewing for anyone going into political negotiations.

Penny Thoughts ‘13—Independence Day (1996) *

PG-13, 145 min.

Director: Roland Emmerich

Writers: Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich

Starring: Will Smith, Bill Pulman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Robert Loggia, Randy Quaid, Margaret Colin, Vivica A. Fox, James Rebhorn, Harvey Fierstien, Adam Baldwin, Brent Spiner

I hated, hated, hated, hated, hated “Independence Day”.

Penny Thoughts ‘12—Lethal Weapon (1987) ****

R, 110 min.

Director: Richard Donner

Writer: Shane Black

Starring: Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Mitch Ryan, Tom Atkins, Darlene Love, Traci Wolfe, Jackie Swanson, Damon Hines, Ebonie Smith

OK. Since I’m posting this after Christmas, I’m going to steer away from the Christmas tradition of this movie and look at a much smaller detail that has been starting to bother me about it in recent years.

We’re all aware of Mel Gibson’s recent issues of anti-Semitism and his publicly released drunken phone calls to his girlfriend and altercations with the police. All this seems to have developed later in Gibson’s career. It may have nothing to do with some of my issues in “Lethal Weapon”. They might lie squarely on the screenwriter Shane Black. I really don’t know. But, having seen the film as many times as I have, I’ve come to notice there seems to be an anti-gay sentiment behind the Martin Riggs character played by Gibson. I may just be reading into his lines more than I should, which is bound to happen after you’ve seen a movie some 30 plus times. Nor have I studied the sequels for such evidence in the character, but he seems fairly homophobic.

Penny Thoughts ‘12—It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) ****

NR, 130 min.

Director: Frank Capra

Writers: Frances Goodwrich, Albert Hackett, Frank Capra, Jo Swerling, Philip Van Doren Stern

Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers, Beulah Bondi, Frank Faylen, Ward Bond, Gloria Grahame, H.B. Warner, Frank Albertson, Todd Karns, Samuel S. Hinds, Mary Treen, Virginia Patton, Charles Williams, Sara Edwards, William Edmunds, Lillian Randolph

I’ve watched Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” every year at Christmas since I was 14-years-old. This year I flipped that number. At 41 years of age, I’ve now seen the movie more than 27 times (including a few years in which I watched it twice between Thanksgiving and Christmas).

Penny Thoughts ‘12—Christmas Vacation (1989) ****

PG-13, 97 min.

Director: Jeremiah Chechik

Writer: John Hughes

Starring: Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Juliette Lewis, Johnny Galecki, John Randolph, Diane Ladd, E.G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, Randy Quaid, Miriam Flynn, Cody Burger, Ellen Hamilton Latzen, William Hickey, Mae Questel, Sam McMurray, Nicholas Guest, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Nicolette Scorsese, Brian Doyle-Murray

While “A Christmas Story” was a whole new experience this year, our screening of National Lampoon’s “Christmas Vacation” was something more typical. Two days before Christmas. We haven’t wrapped any gifts, so throw on a movie that we know and love, and lets crank these things out.

Penny Thoughts ‘12—A Christmas Story (1983) ****

PG, 94 min.

Director: Bob Clark

Writers: Jean Shepherd (also novel “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash”), Leigh Brown, Bob Clark

Narrator: Jean Shepherd

Starring: Peter Billingsley, Darren McGavin, Melinda Dillon, Ian Petrella, Scott Schwartz, Tedde Moore, R.D. Robb, Zack Ward, Yano Anaya, Jeff Gillen

I can’t remember the last Christmas that went by without watching this Christmas classic. I know “A Christmas Story” as well as any movie I’ve ever known. Watching it has become routine. Yet, it’s one of those routines that is cherished, like the way you’ll eat your favorite ice cream sundae in exactly the same way every time.