Top Ten Christmas Films of all Time
It's a Wonderful Life premiered at the Globe Theatre in New York on December 20, 1946, to mixed reviews. While Capra thought the contemporary critical reviews were either universally negative, or at best dismissive, Time said, "It's a Wonderful Life is a pretty wonderful movie.
It is the highest grossing Christmas movie of all time at the North American box office (when adjusted for inflation). Home Alone spawned a successful film franchise with four sequels, including the 1992 film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, which is the only Home Alone sequel to have the original cast reprising their roles.
The sequel to 1999’s “The Best Man,” directed like this film by Malcolm D. Lee, switches up genres, from comedy-drama to a sort of “Big Chill”-style reunion movie, as Lance and Mia (Morris Chestnut and Monica Calhoun) ask their old friends to join them for Christmas, which is the first time they’ve all been together in fourteen years.
It’s time to talk about one of everyone’s favorite festive films, The Nightmare Before Christmas. With it’s unique animation style, incredible music, and fantastic visuals, this stop-motion fantasy can easily be defined as one of the most iconic holiday movies of all time.
Miracle on 34th Street was listed as the fifth best film in the fantasy genre in the American Film Institute's "Ten top Ten" lists in 2008. In 2005, Miracle on 34th Street was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
This 1946 Frank Capra film isn't just one of the best Christmas movies of all time — it's one of the best movies in general, considering it was nominated for six Academy Awards and it ranks #11 on the American Film Institute's original list of the 100 Greatest American Films Of All Time.
I have my suspicions as to why The Muppet Christmas Carol isn't considered a "food movie," whatever that means. It’s a children's movie, for one, with the added vanilla stench of Disney. Unfairly, it's also been submerged beneath the countless other adaptations of Dickens' original story.
In 1983, Flynn made her first appearance as Catherine in National Lampoon's Vacation; like Randy Quaid, she reprised her role in three other Vacation films. Since Christmas Vacation, Flynn has gone on to appear in dozens of movies and TV shows, including Malcolm & Eddie, Evolution, and Grounded for Life.
Cue all Die Hard fans saying in unison, "Shoot the glass". 2) The film is a perfect reflection of a Christmas party The film takes place on Christmas Eve as all the employees in the Nakatomi Plaza unwind with a few festive drinks and a well earned party following a tough financial year.
Love Actually is a 2003 Christmas-themed romantic comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis. It features an ensemble cast, many of whom had worked with Curtis in previous film and television projects.
White Christmas is a 1954 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. Filmed in VistaVision and Technicolor, it features the songs of Irving Berlin, including a new version of the title song, "White Christmas", introduced by Crosby in the film Holiday Inn.
Each Christmas Eve, TBS marathons A Christmas Story, and of course, it simply wouldn't be Christmas without the annual airing of It's A Wonderful Life. However, one holiday classic is all-too-often overlooked, eschewed for the more overtly "goodwill toward men" kind of fair: That classic is Bad Santa.
The Polar Express first came out in 2004 in 3D animation. It's a fantasy musical story about a young boy, Hero Boy, who's skeptical about the spirt of Christmas. On Christmas Eve a train arrives in the middle of the night and wakes the boy.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (also known as Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas) is a 2000 American Christmas comedy film directed by Ron Howard and written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman based on the 1957 story of the same name by Dr. Seuss.
25 Best Christmas Movies of All Time. We’ve made a list and checked it more than twice, and now we’re delivering the Best Christmas Movies to our nice RT readers!
Gremlins is an adorable, horrific, goofy Christmas gift that continues to give decades after it was initially unwrapped. Below are but four of the numerous gifts Gremlins has left under my proverbial celluloid tree.
Browse our selection of genres and decades to find hidden movie gems or rediscover old time ... Jingle All the Way’, ‘A Christmas ... films like ‘Jingle All the ...
A Charlie Brown Christmas is a 1965 animated television special based on the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. Produced by Lee Mendelson and directed by Bill Melendez, the program made its debut on CBS on December 9, 1965. In the special, lead character Charlie Brown finds himself depressed despite the onset of the cheerful holiday season.
Holiday Inn is a 1942 American musical film ... changing the tempo from a minuet to jazz every time ... music from the films Holiday Inn and White Christmas ...
Arthur Christmas is a 2011 British-American 3D computer animated Christmas comedy film, produced by Aardman Animations and Sony Pictures Animation as their first collaborative project. The film was released on 11 November 2011, in the UK, and on 23 November 2011, in the USA.
It was released as A Christmas Carol in the United States. Belfast's Brian Desmond Hurst, producer and director of Scrooge, in 1976 (portrait by Allan Warren) The film also features Kathleen Harrison as Mrs. Dilber, Scrooge's charwoman.
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is a 1992 American Christmas comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. It is the second film in the Home Alone series and the sequel to Home Alone.
Meet Me in St. Louis is a musical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and released in 1944. Divided into a series of seasonal vignettes, starting with Summer 1903, it relates the story of a year in the life of the Smith family in St. Louis, leading up to the opening of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (more commonly referred to as the World's Fair) in the spring of 1904.
The Bishop's Wife, also known as Cary and the Bishop's Wife, is a Samuel Goldwyn romantic comedy feature film from 1947, starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven in a story about an angel who helps a bishop with his problems.
The Shop Around the Corner is one of the best old Hollywood movies, but its clever plot inspired two interesting remakes: the Judy Garland/Van Johnson musical In the Good Old Summertime (1949) and the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan rom-com You've Got Mail (1998).
But this post by film blogger Ian Phillips, which I saw on Reddit, argues that the the Eddie Murphy film "Trading Places" ought to be considered one of the best Christmas movies, and as soon as I saw the post I realized it was obviously correct.
Batman Returns is not a Batman movie; it’s a modern psychosexual gothic fairy tale that happens to enjoy some broad similarities with characters that have appeared in DC Comics. In short, it really is a Tim Burton movie, much more so than even the studio could have expected.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie is a 1998 American animated adventure musical film about the character of the same name, who first appeared in a 1939 story by Robert L. May. The film was the first theatrical feature from GoodTimes Entertainment, long known as a home video company.
Four Christmases (Four Holidays in Australia and New Zealand, Anywhere But Home in the Netherlands, Norway, United Arab Emirates and in South Africa) is a Christmas-themed romantic comedy film about a couple visiting all four of their divorced parents' homes on Christmas Day.
Christmas with the Kranks is a 2004 American Christmas comedy film based on the 2001 novel Skipping Christmas by John Grisham. It was directed by Joe Roth and written and produced by Chris Columbus.
There’s that coke-bust in the Christmas tree lot. And there’s Riggs’ redemption, celebrated along with Christmas at the home of his new partner, Murtaugh (Danny Glover), a moment of wholesomeness that’s almost enough to erase all the ugliness that’s come before.
Frosty the Snowman is a 1969 animated Christmas television special based on the song "Frosty the Snowman". The program, which first aired on December 7, 1969 on CBS (where it continues to air annually), was produced for television by Rankin/Bass Productions and featured the voices of comedians Jimmy Durante as the film's narrator (Durante's final performance in a film) and Jackie Vernon as the title character.
There. I said it. Fred Claus is my favorite Christmas movie of all time. It just narrowly beats out National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and that Christmas movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger in it, whatever that was called.
The Family Stone is a 2005 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Thomas Bezucha. Produced by Michael London and distributed by 20th Century Fox, it stars an ensemble cast, including Diane Keaton, Craig T. Nelson, Dermot Mulroney, Sarah Jessica Parker, Luke Wilson, Claire Danes, Rachel McAdams, and Tyrone Giordano.
Joyeux Noël ('Merry Christmas') is a 2005 epic war drama film based on the Christmas truce of December 1914, depicted through the eyes of French, Scottish, and German soldiers. It was written and directed by Christian Carion.
It's time to take a walk in RT's winter wonderland of cinema -- our Best Christmas Movies countdown! The list uses a weighted formula factoring a movie's Tomatometer score, number of reviews, and year of release.
Soon, he’s whisked into a convoluted adventure, one festooned with holiday decorations, including Michelle Monaghan squeezed into a sexy Santa suit. Maybe, in these crime films and others L.A. Confidential, for instance, or Black’s The Last Boy Scout), it always feels like Christmas in L.A. because it never feels like Christmas in L.A.
The Apartment is the perfect Christmas film. Not Christmas as we'd like it to be – roaring fires, jingle bells, snow – but Christmas as it is in reality. Sometimes joyful, sometimes …
Oh please…this list is crap. Home Alone and Christmas Vacation are two of the BEST Christmas movies of all time and nowhere on the list. Really? I’m done.