Better Christmas Movie: Die Hard or Some Other Movie

Schindler's List, fun for all the family.

Gremlins

One Of Our Dinosaurs is Missing.

it's bad santa

fuck Die Hard

i never make connection till today but home alone is die hard. yippee-ki-yay you filthy animal

Pop Cliché: Advanced Level

die hard 4eva

kiss kiss bang bang

Clearly Enemy of the State is the best XMAS movie.

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
Eyes Wide Shut

morbs what's yr fave silent night deadly night?

Black Christmas

die hard is a fine movie, but the best christmas movie is still fanny & alexander.

^^^^ otm

lethal weapon

die hard is incredible and shakey mo is in dwayne t. robinson mode here, but i do think the best xmas movie is probably fanny and alexander w/a shout-out to the 1951 'a christmas carol' (the alastair sim on, the most genuinely creepy version of the story, up there with the spookiest tourneur flix) and i do love 'it's a wonderful life'

not saying these films are necessarily better than 'die hard' (maybe! maybe not!) but die hard's christmas elements aren't completely essential to the story in that the film could exist without them (not in my world, mind you, at this point they're probably inseparable elements.)

should do a poll on the polar express vs love actually: which film becoming a xmas classic horrifies you more

Home Alone tho

But imo die hard

Category of movies that become 'christmas movies' without having anything to do with christmas could be interesting

i've sat through maybe two dozen versions of scrooge (my ex's dad collected them) and yes, 1951 sim is the best one by a long way -- though the 1970 musical deserves a shout-out just for alec guinness's terrifying jacob marley.

"christmas movies" for me means just watching old movies on the TV, kinda bored of stations trying to make every flick they show have some christmas tie-in right now, gimme James Bond and The Great Escape ffs

Category of movies that become 'christmas movies' without having anything to do with christmas could be interesting

IAWL actually belongs in this category for me -- feel like it's become kind of a cliche to say this but even watching it as a kid i vividly remember being stunned by how bleak and sad it was.

I dunno who dwayne t. robinson is I just no Bruce Willis is insufferable

Ive s een three mins of 70s musical scrooge, the thangyewveeerymuch song, it has stayed with me always and i prob play it in my head, if not under my breath, each time i hear or think the phrase.

the muppets christmas carol is pretty good i thought.

Salo

pretty sure the definitive xmas carol is the rich little one

we're no angels, imo

Oh yeah incredible movie

Muppets awes also

surprised no mention of "a christmas movie" in xmas movie thunderdome.

Brazil

A Christmas Tale also an acceptable answer

Surely without the bleakness in IAWL, the redemption would not work?

Eyes Wide Shut

oh i see Dr Morbius beat me to it.

Home Alone is on right now. Buzz is such a dick.

And I keep wishing this was Uncle Buck but it's still cute.

Grinch

Home Alone is my pick

OG cartoon Grinch tho none of that Jim Carey shit.

Dayo AMC right now. It just started at eight!

Gremlins 4-ever

home alone was so my shit when i was a kid, that house + family was basically my fantasy life

so many of those chitown north shore homes are fuckin sweet. hughes flicks were aspirational real estate porn for a kid from the sticks like me.

The house is ridiculous. I was just thinking that before. It's enormous!

it's like the borg ship

We watched Some Other Movie in class today (guy thought the world would have been a better place without him). Haven't seen Die Hard, can't vote.

I don't have AMC E :(

But I've related before how you know, kids have that movie they watch every. single. day. when they are kids

Home Alone was that movie for me

home alone was so my shit when i was a kid, that house + family was basically my fantasy life

― Hungry4Ass, Wednesday, December 18, 2013 8:32 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so many of those chitown north shore homes are fuckin sweet. hughes flicks were aspirational real estate porn for a kid from the sticks like me.

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Wednesday, December 18, 2013 8:33 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The house is ridiculous. I was just thinking that before. It's enormous!

― Airwrecka Bliptrap Blapmantis (ENBB), Wednesday, December 18, 2013 8:34 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark

Yeah as a single child living in a tiny rowhome in South Philly watching this movie it was like, how the other half lives before I even knew there was an other half

Think this movie was responsible for making me jump up and down on the bed of every hotel room we ever stayed at age 8-15

Trapped in paradise

home alone was responsible for me setting traps for my sister so she would not come in my room.

But I've related before how you know, kids have that movie they watch every. single. day. when they are kids

Mine was Mr. Mom. Yeah, idk either.

乒乓 are you out of town y/n

xp keaton rules is why

as does teri garr

I feel like it's a weird movie for a sm child to love though.

Mr. Mom was a John Hughes movie! Huh.

乒乓 are you out of town y/n

― mookieproof, Wednesday, December 18, 2013 8:59 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

Yah back home for the holidays

k

I need to watch Mr. Mom

Surprised nobody has mentioned Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Finally found out where iiiijjjj got his new dn!!

adventures in babysitting was my jam but it's not really christmas, just winter. only slightly less racially dubious than hughes flicks and its mise-en-scene is more robocop, less ferris bueller

http://www.jeffco.ca/chrspecials/wp-content/gallery/trapped-in-paradise/trapped-in-paradise-10.jpg

Adventures in Babysitting is the best! Also, isn't PT&A Thanksgiving? I was thinking of it earlier though because this house reminds me of Steve M's in that.

some ridic actors pop up in tiny AiB roles

Bradley Whitford
Lolita Davidovich
Clark Johnson

not to mention jacked up vincent d'onofrio and pre-carlito penelope ann miller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_83kEy7k6E

Adventures in Babysitting is the best! Also, isn't PT&A Thanksgiving? I was thinking of it earlier though because this house reminds me of Steve M's in that.

― Airwrecka Bliptrap Blapmantis (ENBB), Wednesday, December 18, 2013 9:21 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark

Huh probably

So weird that the two big American family get-together holiday traditions occur within a month apart of each other

the football season is only so long

home alone was so my shit when i was a kid, that house + family was basically my fantasy life

yeah otm. and catherine o'hara in that movie is the best movie mom ever.

Three Days of the Condor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5oHT6ojvIs

Late nomination: In Bruges

None of these films are aboutt Jesus, FPing all of you

Tales from the Crypt
Black Christmas
Christmas Evil
Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?
Silent Night, Bloody Night

Does "The Apartment" count?

The Thin Man

My family watches Willow every Christmas, Elora Danon as proxy Jesus

None of these films are aboutt Jesus, FPing all of you

Whistle Down the Wind

That one where Michael Keaton dies and comes back as a snowman

Insert keaton career/coke ref here

btw I didn't mean to imply that there was some Christlike aspect to (rapidly googling) "Jack Frost" but...

film cut or TV miniseries of F&A? (hv never seen the long one)

the muppets christmas carol is pretty good i thought.

yes. also the '80s TV one w/ George C Scott is underrated. Alastair Sim hard to beat tho.

Saw the 1970 Scrooge musical at Radio City Music Hall w/ my dad. The anthem in it is of course "I Hate People."

Scrooged has become my family's perennial X-mas movie of choice. I try to add Bad Santa into the mix, but folks aren't always on board.

Also Emmet Otter, but I don't wanna open the x-mas special can of worms.

die hard is a fine movie, but the best christmas movie is still fanny & alexander.

― ian, Wednesday, December 18, 2013 6:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, I do find myself watching the first episode of F&A every few holiday seasons.

The scene with the story about the chair = my fave movie scene ever.

one of best Christmas scenes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cg40zvIPeU

I think Bill Forsyth's Comfort and Joy is my favourite Christmas movie, although thinking about the link at the top, maybe it belongs more to the category of non-Christmas-films-set-during-Christmas. I don't know--the final scene is as Christmassy as Linus's monologue in A Charlie Brown Christmas.

my family tradition was a christmas story but as i got older it shifted to national lampoon's christmas vacation, which i feel like i was not consulted on. the apartment def counts: the santa in the bar, the christmas party where baxter shows off his junior executive bowler, SEASONS GREETINGS FROM THE SHELDRAKES, the sheldrake kids playing with their extravagant presents when baxter calls with news of attempted suicide, etc.; christmas is all around (heh) the movie as inaccessible ambient happiness. feel like brazil is much more of a hipster technicality choice despite its good shopping scenes and santa in the elevator but i always list it too.

BTW HAVE STILL NOT SEEN dIE hARD AND HV NO PLANS TO

^ excerpt from unabomber manifesto

you should see my apartment

DLH's username reminds me that I just watched It's a Wonderful Life and realized that Sam Wainwright, who makes his fortune in plastics, went on to be the guy in The Graduate (who if he'd said more than one word to Ben would have let loose with a "Hee-Haw!"). Timeline seems about right.

xp DON'T DO IT, BALLS! IT'S A TRAP!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-jXS-TcLSk

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Rewatched "Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas" yesterday. Easily the best Christmas movie of all time.

Trading Places is on. Nothing says Christmas like Dan Aykroyd eating ham out of his Santa beard.

Surprised nobody has mentioned Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

― 乒乓, Wednesday, December 18, 2013 10:13 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

feel like if people repping for planes trains & automobiles could be cured & converted to uncle buck w/help

john candy a festive staple either way

Just watched Miracle on 34th Street for the first time ever. Interesting that John Payne is in it especially after seeing him play these ambiguous roles in the Allan Dwan's earlier this year. Happened to be out of the room when Jack Albertson drags the mail sack in.

I don't dislike Uncle Buck, but its hella choppy and its rhythms are often annoyingly sitcom-y. Can't fathom thinking it better than PT&A.

Not sure what's more mindblowing: that the little girl from Uncle Buck played the titular character in Crystal Fairy, or that her IRL Mom is Viva, the Warhol superstar.

"Buck Melanoma, Moley Russell's wart" is ALL-TIME.

^^^

huh i don't remember loving planes trains & automobiles. also this is a digression into john hughes rather than festive films BUT i'd def place some others in front of it. some kind of wonderful. all i remember of PT&A is the part where one of the guys swears a lot & it feels out of the blue.

Uncle Buck is the best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0si6wsZWn6g

It's worth watching Die Hard just to hear Alan Rickman say "Ho Ho Ho".

First time McClane props open an elevator door he uses a screwdriver. Next time he uses an axe. This is character development.

I'm finally watching Die Hard for the first time

this is 100% an American attempt at a Verhoeven movie (not to be confused with a Verhoeven attempt at an American movie), with all that implies - more quip, less cruelty, much less neuroses and raunch. I mean, jan de bont! (and robert davi!!) but it's good so far

Ellis as a character and the Gruber-as-hostage trick are v Verhovian touches imho

Rickman's regionally-wandering American accent while posing as a hostage is pretty hilarious and probably what a real criminal would do.

I love this movie

I don’t think Verhoeven was Verhoeven enough at that point for Die Hard to be an American take on him. But agreed, a lot of the same pleasures, just less perverse.

oh yeah tbc I don't think it was intentional, just the de bont touch and something in the air

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiOgpkNaR_E

Behind the Scene: Director John McTiernan on making the Christmas classic DIE HARD

I guess it’s because I’ve always seen this movie in a crowded room with alcohol, but the last viewing might’ve been the first time the “Happy trails, Hans” kiss off registered as a call back. Pretty great.

Hans Gruber : Uh, no, I'm afraid not. But, you have me at a loss. You know my name but who are you? Just another American who saw too many movies as a child? Another orphan of a bankrupt culture who thinks he's John Wayne? Rambo? Marshal Dillon?

John McClane : Was always kinda partial to Roy Rogers actually. I really like those sequined shirts.

......

.......

I mean yippee kay ay is repeated ten times

I mean... is that a Roy Rogers trademark?

Happy Trails is.

i’m with dmac but welcome to the club i guess lol

Lol I thought Y.K.A. was a generic cowboy thing. Ok, I’ll file this in the “things you learned when you were way too old” thread.

Heh

TIL

For Roy Rogers and Yippee-Aye-Oh-Kye-A see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fagq3CgSe4A

The song was very popular, but it wasn't exclusive to Roy Rogers.

Haha, you guys embarrassed me into googling. It really isn’t a Rogers trademark.

My point wasn’t “oh, wow, he’s saying cowboy stuff and they talked about cowboys earlier!”, was just the preference for Rogers.

TIDL

lol

Come now this is splitting hairs imo

The French Connection is a christmas movie

The French Connection is a christmas movie

― Tracer Hand, Monday, November 29, 2021 9:21 AM (four years ago)

just watched the movie again and came here to post this

also I did not realize what a fucking idiot of a cop Popeye Doyle actually is

he'd be pathetic if he wasn't always _constantly getting people killed_ and/or actually killing other law enforcement officers himself

Am I watching three hours of Fanny And Alexander with my family this Christmas season or five hours of it

go big or go home imho

The first episode of the long version is the most ‘Christmassy’ thing I’ve ever seen.

https://i.ibb.co/BHVs9gRj/Screen-Shot-2025-12-18-at-9-22-54-PM.png

Watched "12 Monkeys" again last night, it's set at Christmas with lots of Christmas stuff (for a movie that has nothing to do with Christmas).

Night Of The Comet is an excellent Christmas movie. I recently read that the character of the younger sister, who spends most of the movie in a cheerleader costume, was partial inspiration for the character of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

It's worth watching Die Hard just to hear Alan Rickman say "Ho Ho Ho".

A work colleague turned up for our xmas lunch wearing a diehard t-shirt with this on, and i did my best every Rickman impression.

I was told yesterday that the score for Die Hard is entirely snippets of transformed Christmas carols and I’m excited to rewatch and listen for them

Cobra is a christmas movie.

Jackie Chan's Police Story is a christmas movie

We watched Scrooged last night - I'd never seen it before. And as I watched it, I came to this weird realisation that Bill Murray isn't all that much of an actor. He has a thing he does in every role I've seen him in - grumpy drunk uncle arsewipe who yells a lot, looking like he's trying not to laugh, who redeems in some dumb way at the end. And this film was a really over-egged version thereof. Very 80s, very cliched.

yeah but Bobcat Goldthwait is in it so it's automatically classic.

Yeah he was great in this, that is true.

and Alfre Woodard!

Well, and to be fair, Carol Kane as a gleefully violent fairy.

she’s incredible!
And KAREN ALLEN aka the human Christmas tree star

I kinda consider it a classic but yeah, one can hit their limit of Bill Murray

funnily enough I think Scrooged is the most Murray family-heavy film ever made, featuring four Murrays. Caddyshack only has three.

I demur about it being that family friendly given how often he calls someone a bitch, but 'twas the era I guess?

Scrooged is a good Christmas horror movie.

A Christmas Tale is devastating; it might as well draw blood.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYjhiNTM3YWYtMTg3NS00NjEyLTg3MzUtNzIzNTc2ZjI5NWUyXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg

city on fire is a christmas movie

Throw Lethal Weapon in there too.

Tangerine and The Baltimorons are my two new favorite Christmas movies.

I love Scrooged; up there with Love and Peace which I didn’t realize was going to be a Christmas movie till it really leaned into it.

I want to see all the IBC Christmas lineup. Especially the Lee Majors saves Christmas one.

How had I never twigged the miles Davis cameo.

Yes I will probably be live posting to Scrooged. My wife and son are sick and I have this on whilst I clean house, wrap presents and prepare for having people over.

I love carol kane on this movie so much.

I love carol kane on this movie so much.

Can't watch Murray's speech at the end of Scrooged without ending up a weepy mess

Also might be time for a Baileys and my annual Love & Peace viewing

oh, could do a double bill with Big Man Japan, that sounds like a good time

I have made a drink with Armagnac and quince vermouth that gets called the ‘carol kane’ or the ‘goldthwaite’

Can't watch Murray's speech at the end of Scrooged without ending up a weepy mess

Mostly improvised it seems, and the director hated it. But agreed, it hits all the right notes.

Die Hard cheerfully passes The Bechdel Test before the opening credits have even finished.