Guide to Festive Film Viewing

And so it is that we enter the festive season, Wham, Wizzard and Slade are on hard repeat in your local supermarket and television adverts have entered that weird time of year when they are exposed to some weird form of social criticism on how 'Christmassy' they are.
As the Christmas trees go up so to do the Christmas films get turned on, with a smattering of less than enticing new festive releases at your local multiplex, here is your guide to the classic Christmas films to watch this year, and where you can fortunately catch them.

It's A Wonderful Life - Unquestionably the most classic of all classic Christmas films. The story of hard on his luck George Bailey (James Stewart) who reaches the point where he feels things would be better if he wasn't alive, that is until angel in training Clarence (Henry Travers) comes to Earth to show George exactly what life would be like if he had never existed. It's immensely heartwarming in showing how much one man can do in his life and how a community comes together when a good man is in need.
Park Circus will be screening It's A Wonderful Life in lots of places over the Christmas period, but try and catch their Christmas Eve screening at The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

The Nightmare Before Christmas- Wanting to successfully bridge the gap between Halloween and Christmas? Then look no further than this stop motion animation classic from the dark mind of Tim Burton. Though actually directed by Henry Selick (Coraline) this is unmistakably Burton's imagination. It's a perfect blend of Halloween darkness and Christmas warmth and features some genuinely timeless songs such as the exceptionally catchy 'Whats this?'.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - With vacations to Wally World and Europe there's no question that the Griswald's adventures would feature a festive vacation. This is one of those Christmas films that isn't entirely heartwarming and sacren, it does however feature a brilliant comic performance as the patriarch of the Griswald family attempting to keep things together as they look increasingly like spiraling out of control. It's worth it alone just to see Clark's epic rant about his boss.

Gremlins - Speaking of not-so-festive Christmas films, Joe Dante's Gremlins is the ultimate example of a family film that's given a nasty edge. After teenager Billy inadvertently flouts three important rules surrounding the care of his new pet Mogwai he unleashes a collection of anarchic creatures on his town known as Gremlins. It features exceptional special effects work from Rick Baker, It's mischievous and naughty and guaranteed to entertain children and adults alike.

The Muppet Christmas Carol -  For most 20 somethings this is almost the definitive adaptation of Dicken's classic novel, and that's because of the immense love people feel towards the Muppet's. The most impressive thing about this adaptation is the great pleasure to be taken from what Muppet's crop up as which characters, Gonzo shoe horned in as Dicken's narrating the story on screen works well, and Mr Fezziweg was destined to become Mr Fozzywigg. You do have to witness Michael Caine singing but it more or less comes out unscathed from that.
Park Circus will be screening The Muppet Christmas Carol on Sat 18th and Sun 19th at Liverpool FACT cinema.

Miracle on 34th Street - Before seeing this film make sure that you're watching the original version, though the 1994 remake is a spirited and interesting attempt at the story it loses a lot of the warmth that original has in abundance. It's a weird film which features the story of a nice old man called Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) who is institutionalised when he claims that he is in fact the real Santa Claus. A young lawyer (John Payne) decides to defend him in court to try and prove that he is in fact who he says he is.

Home Alone - It launched the career of child star Macaulay Culkin and since it's 1990 release has since become a classic. Home Alone is the story of 8 year old Kevin McCallister who must protect his home from hapless burglars (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) when he is accidentally left behind when his family goes on vacation meaning he is left home alone. It's a film based on a very flimsy premise that doesn't really make much sense, but its carried by a brilliant lead performance from Culkin and the endless borderline sadistic slapstick comedy is consistently hilarious.

Elf - Probably the most recent example of a film that's become a staple of the Christmas period. Will Ferrell stars as Buddy the Elf, a man who has been raised by elves and has become increasingly more hapless as he's grown larger until he eventually decides it's time to head to New York to find his birth father (James Caan). The pleasure of this film is in the brilliant 'fish out of water' comedy performance that Ferrell gives, surrounded by able support from talented actors this is a proper Christmas treat, and it has Bob 'freaking' Newhart in it for Christ's sake.

Scrooge - There are so many different versions of the Dickens classic that its difficult to know which one to pick (the muppety one already features on this list). There's fairly average versions such as the Patrick Stewart starring version and the mildly irritating George C Scott version. Then there's Robert Zemeckis' motion captured version which is fairly impressive in terms of the dynamic visual way it chooses to tell the story. There can, however, be only one definitive version of the story and that is the Alistair Sim starring Scrooge from 1951. There's something of the age of this version that holds a warmth and nostalgia like no other version does, and no other actor can hold a Victorian candle to Sim's performance as Ebeneezer Scrooge.

Die Hard - No list of Christmas film's would be complete without the ultimate smart-arse answer of one of the greatest action films ever made Die Hard. It is set at Christmas and has popularised the use of Christmas jumpers being bestowed with the message of 'Ho-ho-ho now I have a machine gun'. Outside of that however it is a balls to the wall action film and an incredibly exciting way to spend 131 minutes. Also in the year that we lost the great Alan Rickman, what better way to remember him then watching his feature film debut as the greatest on screen villain of all time, Hans Gruber. No one did benevolence like Rickman and few could make you shiver with a line like 'I'm going to count to three, there will not be a four'.