The Red Circle

3 for Christmas
By Ryan Brlecic

Scrooged
Modernizing Dickens, Richard Donner sets out with Bill Murray in tow four years removed from his last outing with ghosts in Ghostbusters. This film manages to pack the message of the original Charles Dickens classic with a blend of modern greed and amazing performances.. This is one of my favorite Dick Donner films overall. It serves as a great representation of the range he commanded as a well rounded director. Murray’s dryly comedic turn as Francis Cross is the perfect pitch to match those he plays off throughout the course of the film.

This film is so packed with surprises, details and character moments it would be hard pressed for you not to find something you like. The re-imagining of the three ghosts are fantastically brought to light by David Johansen (past), Carol Kane (present) and a large ghoul with a static filled TV for a face (future). As a bonus, we get TAB (you remember TAB) and Bobcat Goldthwait? The film shows that you can modernize a classic, but a good story at heart is universal and this is truly a great holiday story…the only kind where Lee Majors saves Santa from terrorists!

Gremlins
Dickens, Dick Donner, Dick Miller. There are lots of dicks around Christmas time. Some we meet in the aisles as we fight trench warfare to please our capitalistic masters. Some we meet on the road as we fight the elements of the season. Some, like Dick Miller’s Murray Futterman, we meet when their neighbor’s kid’s pet multiplies after getting wet and the offspring mature into gremlins wrecking havoc all over the town.

Director Joe Dante serves up an unconventional and fun adventure story romp about a town overrun at Christmas time. It’s a well paced tear through quaint fictional Kingston Falls. Billy Peltzer’s (Zach Gilligan, Waxworks I-II) traveling salesman and failed inventor of a father presents him with a Mogwai to teach him a lesson in responsibility. Not only does the film feature a climactic boy/reptile showdown in the toy department of a mall, it also possesses one of the most depressing backstory reveals for a character ever. This is why we love the 80’s and here represented is a lot to love.

At the time Gremlins joined High Spirits, The Burbs (No Clue? Find and watch immediately!), Lost Boys and Ghostbusters in a trend of successful horror/comedy send-ups. It was followed by an off the wall sequel that is only made mentionable by the presence of both Christopher Lee and John Glover. This holiday, seek out Gremlins. Also remember that if anything you get this Christmas seems to malfunction or fail, check the damn warranty.

Die Hard
“Come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs…”

Do I need to sum up this film? This is the definition of an action movie. A still from the film adorns Webster’s definition of the genre. This is why we have Rumer Willis, Disney’s The Kid, and Bruno Sings. Bruce Willis says f you to Moonlighting with Cybil Shepherd, grabs a fire hose and dives shoeless off the top of an LA skyscraper to proclaim, “Welcome to the party, pal.”

Alan Rickman will forever be endured to me for his portrayal of villainous Hans Gruber (still probably one of the best screen bad guys ever). Robert Davi is excellent as one of a pair of unrelated oily Agent Johnsons (Hey, look! Some more Christmas dicks!). Along for the ride is Reginald VelJohnson of Family Matters fame bringing up the rear as a beat cop.

Roderick Thorp’s novel Nothing Lasts Forever is closely followed as adapted for the screen in John McTiernan’s Die Hard (the best damn movie he ever made). It was a sequel to Thorp’s earlier novel The Detective, which was adapted for the screen and starred Frank Sinatra. Sinatra turned down the offer to headline, the story was altered, and the hero of the novel became younger – an everyman. The darker politically-motivated antagonists of Thorp’s book became thieves pretending to be terrorists. The change from a tale of political terrorism to a heist film was made because the director wanted to bring “joy” to the story, rather than having the villains be overly ponderous. Besides can you imagine old blue eyes delivery of, “Yippie-ki-yay, motherf?”

I can literally watch this movie on a loop (see here) and with the above mentioned films it caps off my Christmas Eve every year. This is one of the best Christmas movies you can watch with the family. Thank You Frank Sinatra. Now cue up Beethoven’s 9th Symphony!

Merry Christmas!

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