Is It Or Is It Not A Christmas Movie?

[thaibeachlovers]

6 hours ago, bangon04 said:

are Buddhists allowed to worship Santa Claus??

Given Santa isn't actually a Christian thing ( there is no mention of Santa in the New Testament ), anyone can worship Santa.

[BritManToo]

6 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Given Santa isn't actually a Christian thing ( there is no mention of Santa in the New Testament ), anyone can worship Santa.

Did you hear of the dyslexic devil worshippers who sold their souls to Santa?

They also used to have discussion evenings, "Is there a Dog?"

[ColeBOzbourne]

17 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Would you prefer Justin Bieber or what? Or maybe a (kind of) female actor?

No, maybe someone more like Denzel Washington that can be a tough dude (The Equalizer) without the over-the-top arrogance of Bruce Willis, and that silly smirk he always wears on his face.

[StayinThailand2much]

10 hours ago, bangon04 said:

are Buddhists allowed to worship Santa Claus??

If they are Thai "Buddhists", only if they expect hard cash from Santa...

[GinBoy2]

Hmmm, never quite thought of Die Hard as a Christmas movie, although I have watched it at Christmas.

 

The go to Christmas movie for me, and I watch it every year and still roll around laughing is;

 

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

 

.....but all the Die Hard movies were and always will be great movies, Christmas or not

[talahtnut]

'Die Hard' would be more suitable for Easter, although in exceedingly

poor taste with its childish violence.

Give me Wallace and Grommet's The Wrong Trousers, The Warerabbit,

A Grand Day Out, etc. Sheer creative genius.

[Tippaporn]

If the question even needs to be asked then I'd say, no, Die Hard was not a Christmas movie.  At least there's nothing in that movie which I would consider symbolic of Christmas.  Having it set to a Christmas party with a few images now and again representative of Christmas, like Santa Claus, doesn't quite do it for me, LOL.

 

So I'd be curious to know from the folks who think it is a Christmas movie what precisely symbolizes Christmas in that movie?  Is there a specific scene or scenes?  Is Bruce Willis exemplifying the Christmas spirit in any traditional sense?  What in the movie specifically connects it to Christmas?  I can't see anything but maybe I'm missing it.  Hey, I'd be willing to change my view if I could get some understanding.

I tried to get an explanation from the director himself, John McTiernan.  Not sure if it's just me but I had an extremely difficult time trying to follow his line of thinking.  Seemed to me that he just rambled a lot in trying to explain how a terrorist movie became a Christmas classic (for some).
 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

On 12/10/2021 at 4:02 PM, ColeBOzbourne said:

No, maybe someone more like Denzel Washington that can be a tough dude (The Equalizer) without the over-the-top arrogance of Bruce Willis, and that silly smirk he always wears on his face.

I think the problem with Willis is that in the end he actually believed the BS about him. I was utterly repelled by his persona in Oceans 12 or 59 or whatever number he was in.

[HappyExpat57]

2 hours ago, Tippaporn said:

So I'd be curious to know from the folks who think it is a Christmas movie what precisely symbolizes Christmas in that movie?

The ENTIRE MOVIE is based on an attack at Nakatomi Plaza during a Christmas party. Sgt. Al Powell is singing "Let it Snow" as he buys his snacks. I could go on with numerous examples.

[HappyExpat57]

46 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I think the problem with Willis is that in the end he actually believed the BS about him. I was utterly repelled by his persona in Oceans 12 or 59 or whatever number he was in.

I liked most of the movies he did up until about ten years ago, and whenever he goes on a talk show, he gives HORRIBLE interviews. "Full of himself" hardly begins to express him in the real world.

[Tippaporn]

2 minutes ago, HappyExpat57 said:

The ENTIRE MOVIE is based on an attack at Nakatomi Plaza during a Christmas party. Sgt. Al Powell is singing "Let it Snow" as he buys his snacks. I could go on with numerous examples.

But isn't Christmas just the setting of the movie?  What the movie is about has nothing to do with Christmas as far as I can tell (I've seen it a few times, though never during the holidays).  It's about terrorists and violence and little else that I see.  So that's what I'm wondering about.  Other than the Christmas paraphernalia where's the connection to what Christmas actually represents?

[ExpatOilWorker]

2 hours ago, HappyExpat57 said:

I liked most of the movies he did up until about ten years ago, and whenever he goes on a talk show, he gives HORRIBLE interviews. "Full of himself" hardly begins to express him in the real world.

Bruce Willis is brilliant in Pulp Fiction. 

[HappyExpat57]

1 minute ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

Bruce Willis is brilliant in Pulp Fiction. 

He's been great in many movies, but over the last ten years or so he's gone downhill.

[thaibeachlovers]

10 hours ago, HappyExpat57 said:

The ENTIRE MOVIE is based on an attack at Nakatomi Plaza during a Christmas party. Sgt. Al Powell is singing "Let it Snow" as he buys his snacks. I could go on with numerous examples.

IMO a Christmas movie celebrates Christmas. Killing loads of people at Christmas time is not celebrating the spirit of Christmas.

[Tippaporn]

17 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

IMO a Christmas movie celebrates Christmas. Killing loads of people at Christmas time is not celebrating the spirit of Christmas.

Exactly my sentiment.  It's redefining a movie that takes place during Christmas time as a movie that's about Christmas.  Next thing you know people will start calling girls boys and boys girls.  

[Tippaporn]

Fact checkers agree, and as we all know here fact checkers are beyond reproach in their verdicts.  They have the final say.  

 

DIE HARD

 

 

No Christmas movie debate is complete without discussing "Die Hard," the John McTiernan action film that takes place on a snowy Christmas Eve in Los Angeles.

The plot follows NYPD Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) as he attempts to reconcile with his estranged wife (Bonnie Bedelia) at her office Christmas party, only to have the office tower seized by terrorists.

While the events do take place on Christmas Eve, that's where the association between "Die Hard" and the holiday season ends. There's not a lot of joy or Christmas spirit to be found here, so it's difficult to envision "Die Hard" as anything other than an action movie that just happens to take place on Christmas Eve.

 

Verdict: Not a Christmas movie

[Tippaporn]

IMDB is fake news.  It has Die Hard listed as the No. 2 Christmas movie out of a field of 100.

 

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls000096828/

[ballpoint]

It's not a real Christmas movie, like Life of Brian is.

[Tippaporn]

12 minutes ago, ballpoint said:

It's not a real Christmas movie, like Life of Brian is.

Off topic but it was the 10th anniversary of Hitchen's death this past Wednesday.  Great man . . . great quote.

[TooBigToFit]

Is it the first action movie to connect to the holiday? Since then there have been many including the present series Hawkeye. Bruce Willis is just the modern personality of George Bailey. The evil East Europeans were Mr Potter's henchmen. In Die Hard, Bruce as George Bailey just does what he has to considering the level of evil he faced in Mr Potter's organization.

[Tippaporn]

The British / American historical drama film set around the Christmas of 1183, The Lion In Winter (1968), starring Peter O'toole, Kathrine Hepburn, and a very young Anthony Hopkins in his first major role.  The movie won 3 Oscars with Hepburn winning her 3rd Best Actress Oscar.

 

 

[pgrahmm]

Brad Thor's list includes it....

[ColeBOzbourne]

Bruce Willis says Die Hard is NOT a Christmas movie. That should settle it!

[GammaGlobulin]

On 12/8/2021 at 7:07 PM, BritManToo said:

Wizard of Oz was always the Xmas movie to fall asleep to after Xmas lunch in my parents household.

I don't think I ever managed to watch it all the way through.

 

One year mum managed to cook the turkey with the plastic bag of giblets still inside.

Nah, It'll taste OK, and it did.

 

Do you recall the days when the writing of the name Christmas, as Xmas, was debatable and considered by some as almost a sacrilege?

 

We can expect an AI Xmas, and Robotic Reindeer, very soon.

 

Also, if you want to make snow for a movie set, maybe you should use soap.

 

Don't use cotton, for snow, because this has been tried and failed.

 

Soap is the cheapest and the best for reproducing snow on set.

 

Of course, soap has other purposes, in addition to reproducing the effects of snow for films.

 

Soap is used for things like sexy massage, etc., of course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tippaporn]

LOL.  Getting my threads mixed up.  Never mind.

[Tippaporn]

6 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Do you recall the days when the writing of the name Christmas, as Xmas, was debatable and considered by some as almost a sacrilege?

 

We can expect an AI Xmas, and Robotic Reindeer, very soon.

 

Also, if you want to make snow for a movie set, maybe you should use soap.

 

Don't use cotton, for snow, because this has been tried and failed.

 

Soap is the cheapest and the best for reproducing snow on set.

 

Of course, soap has other purposes, in addition to reproducing the effects of snow for films.

 

Soap is used for things like sexy massage, etc., of course.

 

 

22 hours ago, pgrahmm said:

Brad Thor's list includes it....

Why are the best movies listed last and the worst movies listed first?  I must be reading this upside down.  Or maybe it was written in descending order, worst to best.  Which doesn't quite work out either, as Die Hard would be at the top.  Scratch me noggin'.  LOL

[Tippaporn]

22 hours ago, Tippaporn said:

The British / American historical drama film set around the Christmas of 1183, The Lion In Winter (1968), starring Peter O'toole, Kathrine Hepburn, and a very young Anthony Hopkins in his first major role.  The movie won 3 Oscars with Hepburn winning her 3rd Best Actress Oscar.

 

 

This should've been in the Xmas Movie thread.  Just in case anyone cares, LOL.

[Tippaporn]

6 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Do you recall the days when the writing of the name Christmas, as Xmas, was debatable and considered by some as almost a sacrilege?

 

We can expect an AI Xmas, and Robotic Reindeer, very soon.

 

Also, if you want to make snow for a movie set, maybe you should use soap.

 

Don't use cotton, for snow, because this has been tried and failed.

 

Soap is the cheapest and the best for reproducing snow on set.

 

Of course, soap has other purposes, in addition to reproducing the effects of snow for films.

 

Soap is used for things like sexy massage, etc., of course.

 

This is a still from the first known film depicting A Christmas Carol entitled Scrooge from 1901.  How old are you, anyway, GammaGlobulin?  LOL

 

[starky]

On 12/17/2021 at 12:19 PM, Tippaporn said:

Fact checkers agree, and as we all know here fact checkers are beyond reproach in their verdicts.  They have the final say.  

 

DIE HARD

 

 

No Christmas movie debate is complete without discussing "Die Hard," the John McTiernan action film that takes place on a snowy Christmas Eve in Los Angeles.

The plot follows NYPD Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) as he attempts to reconcile with his estranged wife (Bonnie Bedelia) at her office Christmas party, only to have the office tower seized by terrorists.

While the events do take place on Christmas Eve, that's where the association between "Die Hard" and the holiday season ends. There's not a lot of joy or Christmas spirit to be found here, so it's difficult to envision "Die Hard" as anything other than an action movie that just happens to take place on Christmas Eve.

 

Verdict: Not a Christmas movie

Like all things Google if you ask the question the right way you will get the answer you are looking for.

  Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Yes

Is Die Hard not a Christmas movie? Yes.

[Tippaporn]

1 minute ago, starky said:

Like all things Google if you ask the question the right way you will get the answer you are looking for.

  Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Yes

Is Die Hard not a Christmas movie? Yes.

How true, LOL.