It’s confession time. Here it comes … my deep, dark secret. Ready?
I like the Hallmark Christmas movies.
Not all of them, of
course, but many of them. Sure, some of
them are ridiculously cheesy, like the ones where Santa Claus forgets who he
is, or the ones with characters named Kringle, or the ones where animals talk. There’s a new one with Harry Connick, Jr., one
of my favorite actors/singers, that is relatively unwatchable. It’s more of an advertisement for country
singers than a real movie, and in the middle of the slapstick humor, someone
dies. Watching that movie is like eating
a plate full of jalapenos while sipping eggnog – it’s just not right.
Some of those Hallmark
movies are downright addictive, though.
So far this season I’ve
watched several, and one favorite is Christmas
With Holly. The three brothers are hilarious,
the scenery (Pacific Northwest coast) is gorgeous, and the little girls who
play Holly are sweet. (May they never
turn into Lindsey Lohan or Miley Cyrus.)
Kind of a fan of A Season for
Miracles, too, because I like Patty Duke and the acting isn’t
half-bad. I think my favorite overall is
The Wishing Tree, and not because it’s
about an English professor. It’s
decently acted, and the students (actors) carry the story.
There are many holiday
specials I often miss, sometimes because I don’t pay attention to the
television schedule and some because they’re not on anymore. A
Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph,
and How the Grinch Stole Christmas
have been cut down so much that I barely recognize them. Now that TV runs 50% commercials for every
show, it’s impossible to ever see the original versions of these things. It doesn’t matter because I usually miss them
when they air, anyway.
Some others I have only
seen briefly then never again include several versions of A Christmas Carol (which we start reading as a play in class in
about two weeks). One of these versions
is the first I ever saw, Mr. Magoo’s
Christmas Carol. There’s the 1938
version with Reginald Owen, the 1951 version with Alastair Sim, the Blackadder version from 1988 with Rowan
Atkinson before he became Mr. Bean, and, a favorite, the Muppet version. Sometimes these will pop back up on
television, but it’s rare to see them, and Blackadder
may well be lost to obscurity. If you
ever come across it, though, it’s early Hugh Laurie (of House fame), too.
Anyway, the holiday season
is just getting underway. I don’t have
my tree up yet, which I am ashamed to admit.
It’s usually up and lit by now because if I am going to do all the work
of the holidays, I’m darn well going to enjoy it for as long as possible. There are many more movies and specials to
watch, so if you have any suggestions, I’m opening the forum.
