17 December 2014
5 Christmas Films to watch over the Festive Season
Strategic Resources staff has compiled a list of their favourite Christmas movies to watch over the Festive Season
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Elf (2003)
PG - 97 min - Comedy | Family | Fantasy
Buddy was a baby in an orphanage who stowed away in Santa's sack and ended up at the North Pole. Later, as an adult human who happened to be raised by elves, Santa allows him to go to New York City to find his birth father, Walter Hobbs. Hobbs, on Santa's naughty list for being a heartless jerk, had no idea that Buddy was even born. Buddy, meanwhile, experiences the delights of New York City (and human culture) as only an elf can. When Walter's relationship with Buddy interferes with his job, he is forced to re-evaluate his priorities.
Stars: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Bob Newhart
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Home Alone (1990)
PG - 103 min - Comedy | Family
Home Alone is the highly successful and beloved family comedy about a young boy named Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) who is accidentally left behind when his family takes off for a vacation in France over the holiday season.
Stars: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern
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It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
U - 130 min - Drama | Family | Fantasy
Frank Capra directs this heartwarming Christmas fantasy. George Bailey (James Stewart) has spent his entire life in the small town of Bedford Falls. Despite his yearning to see the world, George has always sacrificed his personal ambitions for the sake of his family and the local community, settling down to marry his childhood sweetheart, Mary (Donna Reed), and raise a family. However, when a huge amount of money goes missing from the savings and loans company he panics and finds himself preparing to commit suicide. However, he is shown the error of this idea by Clarence (Henry Travers), an angel who has been sent to Earth in order to earn his wings. To this end, Clarence shows George just how badly Bedford Falls and its residents would have turned out had he never been born.
Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore
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The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
U - 85 min - Comedy | Drama | Family
A retelling of the classic Dickens tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, miser extraordinaire. He is held accountable for his dastardly ways during night-time visitations by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.
Stars: Michael Caine, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire
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The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
PG - 76 min - Animation | Family | Fantasy
Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of Halloween Town, is bored with doing the same thing every year for Halloween. One day he stumbles into Christmas Town, and is so taken with the idea of Christmas that he tries to get the resident bats, ghouls, and goblins of Halloween town to help him put on Christmas instead of Halloween - but alas, they can't get it quite right.
Stars: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara
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Love Actually (2003)
15 - 135 min - Comedy | Drama | Romance
The movie follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely inter-related tales all, set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.
Stars: Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Liam Neeson
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The Grinch (2000)
PG - 104 min - Comedy | Family | Fantasy
Inside a snowflake exists the magical land of Whoville. In Whoville, live the Whos, an almost mutated sort of munchkinlike people. All the Whos love Christmas, yet just outside of their beloved Whoville lives the Grinch. The Grinch is a nasty creature that hates Christmas, and plots to steal it away from the Whos which he equally abhors. Yet a small child, Cindy Lou Who, decides to try befriend the Grinch.