Come on, you’re reading The Cinema King – you had to expect Batman at some point on this list. I’ve commented elsewhere that Batman stories and Christmas go together like gingerbread cookies and eggnog, and Tim Burton’s second outing as the Bat-director plays that card to the hilt. Burton’s Gotham remains gothic under a blanket of snow and all the tinsel of a major metropolis decked-out for the holidays. Michael Keaton is back as Bruce Wayne; Batman’s enemies here are The Penguin and Catwoman, with Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer turning in iconic performances. It’s never a bad time to watch a Batman film, and Batman Returns is one of the better Bat-movies – even if it’s more a Tim Burton movie where Batman plays a supporting role to a literal traveling carnival of freaks. But watching Batman defend the lighting of Gotham’s Christmas tree ought to give anyone a dose of holiday cheer.
In many ways, Die Hard is a de facto choice for any tongue-in-cheek list of Christmas movies. It’s so far from most films classically considered to be Christmas movies; it’s clearly a late-80s action movie starring Bruce Willis as the yippee-ki-yaying cop John McClane. But there’s an element overlooked by most, what those in the know remember about this movie once December rolls around: that office party that Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his gang raid? It’s a Christmas Eve soiree, which accounts for how every cop in New York can surround the skyscraper when the heist goes down. Add in John McClane’s classic “Ho Ho Ho” message he scrawls on the body of a thug wearing a Santa hat – you can bet that wasn’t on Gruber’s Christmas list. At its core, though, Die Hard is just a great bit of fun, filled with classic action, clever dialogue, and enough Yuletide cheer to make even the grouchiest Grinch a little peppier.
Come back tomorrow for #4-3!
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