Looking fora Christmas movie that's a little off the beaten path? Not necessarily Die Hard or Black Christmas, but a change of pace from the stuff you've seen a million times? Here are a few suggestions for Christmas movies that you may not have seen.
SANTA CLAUS: THE MOVIE (1985)
After Christopher Reeve left the Superman franchise and audiences justifiably ignored Supergirl, producers/shipping magnates Alexander and Illya Salkind hoped to start a new franchise by giving Santa Claus the same treatment. This movie wouldn't be featured here if they'd succeeded (it was ignored by audiences and mostly savaged by critics), but while Santa Claus has its faults, it also has its charms. The design (by a mix of those brought us Richard Donner's Superman before and Tim Burton's Batman after) is imaginative and a lot of fun, with Santa's old fashioned workshop a highlight. Henry Mancini's score is bouncy and fun, and Dudley Moore's lovably scatter-brained elf Patch is a likable protagonist. And we haven't even gotten to the Big Lebowsi himself, David Huddleston, as one of the better live-actions Santas. The child actors are weak (sometimes to an annoying degree), the script is spotty, and John Lithgow's Lex Luthor-esque evil toymaker is a perfect example of one of those over the top Lithgow performances that is alternately amusing and just irritating, but there's enough in director Jeannot Swzarc (Jaws 2, Somewhere in Time, Supergirl) made one of his more entertaining films here, and I've actually been a little surprised by how few people I encounter are familiar with it.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1984)
TV production from 1984 may be as close to a definitive translation of the actual book as you'll ever see. George C. Scott brings what I can only call a Shakespearean flair to his Ebenezar Scrooge, and he's surrounded by an excellent cast, including David Warner as Bob Cratchit, Roger Rees as Fred, Lucy Gutteridge as Belle, Joanne Whalley as Fan, and maybe best of all, Edward "The Equalizer" Woodward as the Ghost of Christmas Present. If Merchant Ivory in their heyday had chosen to make a holiday film, this is what they would have come up with.
ARTHUR CHRISTMAS (2011)
Aardman, the British animation studio behind Wallace and Grommit and Chicken Run gave us a film that should be a required part of everyone's Christmas, but it was lost in the shuffle of a very crowded holiday season where even Martin Scorsese had a family-friendly film out. Arthur (voiced by X-Men's James McAvoy) is the younger son of the current Santa Claus (voiced by Jim Boradbent), and while he loves Christmas, he's a screw-up perpetually in the shadow of his older brother Steve (voiced by Hugh Laurie). But when a mistake is made and a child in Trelew, Cornwall is left without a gift, Arthur and his grandfather (a retired former Santa voiced by Bill Night) set out to make it right. Arthur Christmas is as heartwarming as you might expect, but it's also hilarious, with that distinctive flavor of British comedy (even sometimes the sort biting, edgy, Black Adder style). A must-see.
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