In the mood for a little holiday but all the holiday movies have been rented? Angry that “It’s a Wonderful Life” no longer airs 452 times every December? Want a little Christmas cheer, with an emphasis on little? Well then, rent one of these movies that have some holiday spirit but could stand alone without the seasonal backdrop. Call this Christmas lite.
“The Poseidon Adventure” (1972): Never again will you complain about a lousy New Year’s Eve party after viewing this landmark disaster film about a cruise ship that is turned upside-down when broadsided by a tidal wave just after midnight. Almost everybody dies, except for, peculiarly, the all-star cast that includes Gene Hackman and Shelley Winters, who treats the audience to a harrowing underwater swim.
Party survivors use an immense Christmas tree as a ladder to escape the ballroom to another deck, then seek an exit through the ship’s bottom, all the while trekking from one spectacular Oscar-winning visual effect to another.
“Stalag 17” (1953): There’s a spy in this German prison camp, and the U.S. soldiers detained there think it’s fellow POW William Holden.
Suspense and paranoia build in the days leading to Christmas, and the darkness lifts only in scenes where holiday goodwill and songs are staged. Holden, meanwhile, tries to convice the others in the barracks that he’s innocent while trying to find the real snitch.
“Die Hard” (1988): Big-time burglars take an L.A. skyscraper under siege during an office party on Christmas Eve in hopes of stealing hundreds of millions in bonds. A New York cop (Bruce Willis) visiting his estranged wife manages to elude the bad guys, headed by Alan Rickman, and scurries through the building and one by one stuffs their stockings with lead. This top-notch action film with great visual effects will keep you up even after you’ve gotten tired of waiting for Santa.
“Trading Places” (1983): Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy are test subjects in a bet between two elderly commodities brokers on what determines a successful life: environment or heredity. Murphy gets pulled off the Philadelphia streets and reaps the benefits of the experiment, while Aykroyd’s privileged life is swept out from under him.
By Christmas Eve, a down-and-out Aykroyd, drunk and out for revenge, stumbles about in a Santa costume and eats salmon through a dirty Santa beard. Yum.
“A Midnight Clear” (1992): Smarter-than-your-average American soldiers are sent on a mission to a deserted country home to watch for advancing German soldiers during Christmastime 1944 in World War II. Gary Sinise, Ethan Hawke and Kevin Dillon are among the soldiers who avoid battle while chancing upon Germans with the same idea.
The Christmas scenes are few and far between, but the snow’s not, and in fact is visible in virtually every outdoor shot. But in a touching scene on Christmas Eve, U.S. and German soldiers decorate a tree, with a German soldier hanging an American grenade.
“Reckless” (1995): Pick an adjective and it’ll probably apply, but “surreal” best sums up this film about family, honesty, hope and running from one’s problems.
Mia Farrow plays a woman who flees her home on Christmas Eve after her husband tells her he plans to have her killed to collect insurance money. Early on Farrow delivers a lot of smart, deadpan humor, but when she is taken in by a Samaritan and his paraplegic/deaf wife, the film gradually descends into a bizarre, black humor-laced tale.
“Home Alone” (1990): The film whose title now serves as the trademark for negligent parents across the country is not only the most successful comedy ever, but also a bastardized “Hints from Heloise” in which virtually every household item gets new use as a weapon.
A not-yet-annoying Macaulay Culkin stars as the little boy whose distracted parents, rounding up their brood for a Christmas vacation, accidentally leave him at home. Culkin is then forced into battle against two bungling burglars.
“When Harry Met Sally” (1989): This gem from director Rob Reiner, with a sharp, hilarious screenplay by Nora Ephron, is an insightful romantic comedy that follows the relationship between Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. Two crucial sequences take place during the holidays, neither of which can be discussed without ruining the movie.
“Gremlins” (1984): Keep it out of the light, don’t expose it to water and never, ever feed it after midnight. That might sound like a passage from the Vampire’s Handbook, but it’s actually the rules for caring for a cute, furry “mogwai” that a half-baked inventor brings home to his teenage son as an early Christmas present. All these rules are broken, of course, and just when a tense situation appears under control, Joe Dante, the director who brought you “Piranha,” unleashes the wrath of hell on Christmas Eve.
“The French Connection” (1971): Early in this film New York cop “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman), dressed as Santa, chases a suspect through the streets of Brooklyn and then performs an interrogation that’ll make kids swear off the big red guy till adulthood. Stick around for the famous scene where a car chases an elevated train. The film won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Hackman.
