Last movie watched...

[radiator]

They're showing Die Hard at my local starting the day after i head back to the UK. Gutted! Seeing Home Alone there next week though!

[TordelBack]

Good call on Trading Places.  Every year I seem to forget that it's a Christmas movie, and you can never watch it too often.  Another flick that Denholm Elliot infuses with raw heart.

Hey, now I'm picturing The Legendary Shark in the Billy Ray role. "Sounds to me like you guys're a couple of bookies."

[Hawkmumbler]

Gremlins. Oh and Elf.

[JamesC]

Anyone remember Bernard and the Genie? It was something of an Xmas staple in the mid-nineties but never comes on anymore. It's a shame as I remember it being very fun and Christmassy with a great cast.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101435/

[shaolin_monkey]

I think the only actual Xmas film I watch and enjoy is 'It's a Wonderful Life' - the whole film is great, but the last few minutes where the bell tinkles just boots me in the feels and has me blubbing into my pint.

Otherwise, for me Xmas films have always meant Star Wars.  My childhood was spent yearning for when I could next watch a Star Wars film, as only the well-off kids had VCRs.  That meant every Xmas I was glued to the Radio Times searching out any hint of when a Star Wars film would be shown. 

I remember being totally devastated one Xmas when I discovered we had to shuttle between family visits on Boxing Day, and that due to travel times I would miss the last 30 mins of Empire Strikes Back.  Absolutely gutted.



On a slightly unrelated-ish note, does anyone remember when they used to play the first Star Wars film on a telly above the Star Wars toy display in the John Menzies on Princes Street in Edinburgh?  In my summer holidays I would basically camp out there.  I would find a spot hidden from the assistants and loiter, watching the film at least twice a day. 

That all ended one fateful afternoon towards the end of the holidays when I was really tired and decided to sit down and watch it, with another toy stand hiding me from view of the sales assistants at the counter.  For some reason, a bunch of passing mums got it in their heads that I'd been left there by another parent, assumed it was a safe area, so they dumped their kids next to me while they went shopping.  This escalated very quickly, until 30 mins later that Star Wars video was shared with almost a mini-bus worth of kids, and me in the thick of it.

I still remember how the chaos started: 

'Han Solo in Hoth outfit?  Certainly, madam, come this way.'

- at which point a sales assistant walked around the stand and almost tripped over about 20 kids sat there, entranced by the sci-fi spectacle.  All hell broke loose!  The assistant got the manager who asked all the kids where they had come from, what they were doing there, and more assistants were called in to coral the kids in a kind of holding area while they took parent names, and called out for them on the shop intercom.  There were tears and howls of indignation as we were hauled away right at a critical moment in the escape from the Death Star.

Naturally, when they got to me, and no parent came to get me, they quickly deducted I was the source, taking my name and address.  From that moment onwards I was marked - every time I walked into Menzies from that point I was spotted and steered out of the store.  Again, gutted!  However, by that time I can safely say I had seen A New Hope in their store at least 50 times. 

Ah, happy days!   

[TordelBack]

Brilliant story, SM!  For myself, repeat home 'viewings' of SW were accomplished through use of a tape recorder shoved up close to the TV on one of those precious showings, although my constant shushing of my brother does drown out a lot of the dialogue...

[Professor Bear]

Every year, A Muppet Christmas Carol gets an airing, and every year it's just as brilliant.  If the sight of Kermit describing the view from the graveyard his dead son enjoys doesn't move you, you are a robot, and not one of the cool ones.

[shaolin_monkey]

Brilliant story, SM!  For myself, repeat home 'viewings' of SW were accomplished through use of a tape recorder shoved up close to the TV on one of those precious showings, although my constant shushing of my brother does drown out a lot of the dialogue...

Hahaha, brilliant!  I used to do the same with the A Team and Knight Rider! 

Every year, A Muppet Christmas Carol gets an airing, and every year it's just as brilliant.  If the sight of Kermit describing the view from the graveyard his dead son enjoys doesn't move you, you are a robot, and not one of the cool ones.

Oops, forgot about that one!  That is a Xmas film I am happy to watch any time of the year. 

We're Marley and Marley!  WOOOOOO!!!   

[Hawkmumbler]

Every year, A Muppet Christmas Carol gets an airing, and every year it's just as brilliant.  If the sight of Kermit describing the view from the graveyard his dead son enjoys doesn't move you, you are a robot, and not one of the cool ones.

Oh god that freaked me out as a child!

[Professor Bear]

Michael Caine starting to sing freaks me out even when I know it's coming.

[paddykafka]

Saw "Blade Runner - The Final Cut" last night in the Irish Film Institute. First time watching it on the big screen in, like, decades. Awesome! Just freaking awesome! (I actually welled up a few times at certain scenes, lol. )

[shaolin_monkey]

I really wanted to see that at Cineworld in Cardiff last night but didn't get home from a gig until 30 mins into the film.  Gutted!

I'm not having much luck with the BFI film showings.  I wanted to see 2001 at the same venue the week before but was too slow off the mark, and it sold out!

[paddykafka]

Fear not, old son. Blade Runner is being re-released full scale in April 2015.

[shaolin_monkey]

Woohoo!!!

[Richmond Clements]

Robocop remake - that was a bit dull, wasn't it? What was missing from the first one was not [spoiler]having the first hour or so taking place in a factory where they were fiddling with Robocop's settings.[/spoiler]