Happy POLLidays! (Happy POLLidays!) It's the ILX Holiday Movies Poll Results Thread

my appreciation for this is so entangled with nostalgia that it's probably not worth parsing, but I'm pretty sure this was the last instance of Chevy Chase being funny in a movie.

Yes. His double takes are excellent.

in my family when someone cant finish a thought, loses the thread or otherwise drifts off when talking, it is not unheard of for someone to yell "THE BLESSING!" at them

Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKncYRJQRC8

in my family when someone cant finish a thought, loses the thread or otherwise drifts off when talking, it is not unheard of for someone to yell "THE BLESSING!" at them

― warn me about a lurking rake (One Eye Open)

mine too!

Yes, this might be the all-time family-quoting movie.

I can't ever get past finding Chevy Chase utterly repellent, even if Clark Griswold is supposed to be on many levels horrible.

yeah his comedic style is predicated on him being a clueless dickhead, which he actually is in real life, so unless his sensibilities are channeled just so (Caddyshack, Fletch, og Vacation & NLCV, some early SNL), his persona just grates.

I like that, in Community, the joke was actually on him.

I stared at the list of his filmography as if at the remains of an electrocuted cat.

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/27.batman_returns.jpg

27. BATMAN RETURNS
Tim Burton, USA, 1992
(201 points, 4 votes)

I have a copy of the first episode of The Chevy Chase Show which I just rewatched a bit of the other day. Highly, highly recommended. Among the most beautiful of trainwrecks.

Batman Returns didnt pass my arbitrary "is it christmassy enough" test, but man do i love that movie. maybe the only superhero/comic book movie that i enjoy

oh man, yeah, The Chevy Chase show was definitely one of the best worst ideas in modern cultural history. Did it even make it to episode #2?

xp

Best Batman movie, best performance in a Batman movie (Pfeiffer), most fun Pfeiffer performance.

definitely the highlight of Burton-era Batman, it's level of being Christmasy is incidental but palpable.

I dunno, Bruce Wayne spending the back half of the film dressed in a modified Santa suit and fighting the Penguin with an oversized candy cane felt pretty Christmas-y to me but ymmv.

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/26.far_from_heaven.jpg

26. FAR FROM HEAVEN
Todd Haynes, USA, 2002
(202.5 points, 4 votes)

I dunno, Bruce Wayne spending the back half of the film dressed in a modified Santa suit and fighting the Penguin with an oversized candy cane felt pretty Christmas-y to me but ymmv.

dang, that is something I totally forgot about - time for a rewatch!

another great movie I don't recall the Christmas/holidays component of at all

xpost Please do not sue me when you discover upon rewatching that I have fudged the truth a lil.

lol

This was not the Todd Haynes movie I voted for.

that's probably my fave batman movie
Penguin robots!

xpost Oh right, totally forgot that Superstar was made using Elf on the Shelf dolls!

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/25.the_ice_storm.jpg

25. THE ICE STORM
Ang Lee, USA, 1997
(205.5 points, 4 votes)

I legit get a little misty at the end of batman returns when the penguins give The Penguin a little penguin funeral

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/24.hudsucker.jpg

25. THE HUDSUCKER PROXY
Joel Coen, USA, 1994
(215 points, 4 votes)

Ice Harvest > Ice Storm

I feel gratified by the critical reevaluation that The Huduscker Proxy has received in recent years, but I didn’t even consider it for this poll.

Only thing to show up so far today that I voted for is Christmas Vacation. I can think of few comedies—and certainly none since 1989–with so many classic supporting performances (to a fault, at times, I admit; does Diane Ladd even have any lines?).

She has a martini.

Or is that the biddy from ELR?

The latter iirc

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/23.muppet_cc.jpg

23. THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL
Brian Henson, USA, 1992
(230 points, 4 votes)

Sorry, that should be...

23. THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL
Brian Henson, USA, 1992
(230 points, 4 votes)

couldn't not give this lil guy a vote, surprised it's not higher

made my top 10

mine too.

I should see this sometime. I am a HUGE fan of the Henson era but my engagement with the Muppets material since then has been spotty and not particularly rewarding. But I've heard enough people say good things about this that I probably need to give it a fair shake.

(At least a couple of the Henson-era xmas entertainments (Emmet Otter and Christmas Eve on Sesame Street) aren't just at the top of my holiday viewing lists but are also among my all-time favorite cultural objects. So those are some big shoes.)

Christmas Carol is probably the only post-henson muppet thing that I really rate

I rate Muppets Most Wanted pretty highly tbh, probably even higher than Christmas Carol.

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/22.la_grande_illusion.jpg

22. LA GRANDE ILLUSION
Jean Renoir, France, 1937
(234 points, 4 votes)

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/21.thin_man.jpg

21. THE THIN MAN
W.S. Van Dyke, USA, 1934
(260.5 points, 5 votes, 1 first-place vote)

i like to watch at least one thin man movie every january during TCM's yearly blitz

as i've said, pictured scene is ideal Christmas morning

I've not seen this, but I love the novel!

i got a thin man box set and watched a bunch of them out of order, and theyre so similar that i completely lost track of which ones i have and havent seen, so to make sure i havent missed any ive got no recourse but to just watch through them all in order... not a bad problem to have

Only 21? ILX I am disappoint. (I cast that first-place vote.) The movie is toned down from the book, but I think it hits the sweet spot between hard-boiled crime drama (facing down increasingly more effective efforts to enforce the Hays Code) and the incoming screwball comedy genre.

As for La Grande Illusion, I'm pleased that people beside me remembered the Christmas element.

much of La Grande Illusion took place in winter, but it had only one actual Christmas scene! Still, it’s a great film, and was on my list

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/20.mon_oncle_antoine.jpg

20. MON ONCLE ANTOINE
Claude Jutra, Canada, 1971
(261 points, 5 votes)