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

I watches Trading Places last night. Surprisingly homophobic even for an 80s movie.

Apologies for getting overwhelmed yesterday. It's a lucky top 13 today starting now!

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14. A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Brian Desmond Hurst, UK, 1951
(360 points, 6 votes)

I wish more movies aped Nightmare Before Christmas' swift pacing/runtime

wow thought '51 Christmas carol would be top ten for sure

mum just asked why there is only one marley brother in this bbc adaptation of a christmas carol, correctly assuming that muppets christmas carol is the original text

— claire biddles (@msclairebiddles) December 22, 2019

Just been discussing Sim v George C Scott. Love both tbh

The last two were both in my top 5 - I grew up watching ACC 51 with my parents every year & the ghost of Christmas future haunted my dreams a child, so I had to include a reference to that in the screencap. ANBC is a unique reframing of timeless mythologies, and also the high watermark for modern stop-motion animation imo (tho the Laika films give it a run for its money).

Selick wrote and directed Coraline for Laika, though (and then signed an exclusive contract with Disney to do stop motion films for them, all of which they've currently canned)

The award-winning short Moongirl for Laika, too.

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12. EYES WIDE SHUT
Stanley Kubrick, USA-UK, 1999
(372.5 points, 7 votes)

I must say the soundstage element lends a creepy snowglobe aesthetic that makes it feel more Christmassy than the text would suggest

Well put! I really wish I’d managed to see this in the cinema when it came around earlier this month

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11. BAD SANTA
Terry Zwigoff, USA, 2003
(381 points, 7 votes)

I should see this sometime.

I saw Eyes Wide Shut in Perth, WA, having smoked some very strong weed. It's probably the most intense cinema experience I've ever had and I'm basically scared to watch it again.

Too low, srsly

If i'd've got it together to vote i'd've put Bad Santa top 5. First place would feel wrong but it's great and a necessary corrective to schmaltz and still engaged with the double feeling of the sociopolitical concept of Christmas in a way that a bunch of these films aren't really.

yes, it’s extremely “about” Christmas, in multiple ways

I haven't seen any of 2003's three now-beloved Xmas movies (the third of which I'm going to assume won't place here).

Part of the initial appeal of it for me was that it felt like it came out of nowhere, in that I was expecting more along the lines of other “Bad ___” films — this Santa is outrageous! He smokes and swears! And what I got was one of those ultra-hardboiled comedies that is nearly impossible to get right (I think Shane Black’s the nice guys is another, tho I’d need to rewatch to see just how right it gets it)

RIP Bernie Mac & John Ritter - both were in top form in Bad Santa (as were all the other actors in it tbh)

The sequel is a fuckin shame

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10. DIE HARD
John McTiernan, USA, 2003
(388 points, 7 votes, 1 first-place vote)

METHINKS YOU POSTED THIS TO THE WRONG LIST SIR

Well, I'm glad we finally solved that.

Hans... BUBBE

lol I was a bit taken aback when “die hard is a Christmas movie lolol” and attendant backlash became a thing, because it just clearly and organically is, the same way a bunch of these are. I posted this the last time it came up I think but I watched half of it’s a wonderful life and there was like no Xmas content at all except a vague ripoff of ACC. The rules don’t even need to be very porous for die hard to count! I also really like it, one of my fave action movies

Ice Harvest is also better than Bad Santa

It's set at Christmastime and it has Run-D.M.C.'s "Christmas in Hollis," so I count it.

(xp)

And it feels Christmassy and is on tv every Christmas and everyone likes it and a guy says hohoho and half the soundtrack is Christmas songs qed but I guess “bacon people” also say so, making it untrue

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09. THE APARTMENT
Billy Wilder, USA, 1960
(390 points, 7 votes, 2 first-place votes)

die hard literally full of nonstop Christmas images and signifiers, way more Christmas content than many films on this list, incl the likely #1

Ice Harvest is also better than Bad Santa

I dunno. I liked it (and to this day I still have lingering John Cusack feels). It does feel notably mature (if not tragic) compared to its contemporaries. But IH comes across too much as producers trying to replicate the BS phenomenon. Not as blatantly as certain other titles, but....

Literally never heard of ice harvest

Legit forgot to vote for The Apartment.

Starting to feel like The Silent Partner's not going to make it lol

The Apartment too low

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08. A CHRISTMAS STORY
Bob Clark, USA, 1983
(391 points, 7 votes)

somehow I've never seen this either, but mad respect to Bob Clark, the true winner of this poll

If only Deathdream were set at Christmas...

due to extreme cable TV overexposure i don't know if i could ever enjoy watching this again, but voted for it nonetheless

This poll resolves for me that I would much rather spend my holidays with Bob Clark than Todd Haynes.

i just realized that ive been confusing the ice harvest with the ice storm all this time, was pretty baffled at the bad santa comparisons for a minute there

I'm shocked Bad Santa placed so low. Thought it would win in a landslide.

Bad Santa is overrated tbh

mad respect to Bob Clark, the true winner of this poll

Well...

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07. PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES
John Hughes, USA, 1987
(396 points, 7 votes, 1 first-place vote)

Flirted with giving Eyes Wide Shut my #1 vote for awhile. Still not convinced I shouldn't have.

Candy reading that book is such a great gag, I love it