http://www.moviesaboutgladiators.com/2011/12/to-the-best-non-christmas-christmas-movies/ Thoughts on Film Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:01:23 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3 http://www.moviesaboutgladiators.com/2011/12/to-the-best-non-christmas-christmas-movies/#comment-1953 Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:01:23 +0000 http://www.moviesaboutgladiators.com/?p=3431#comment-1953 […] Die Hard: There’s at least one Santa reference in the first three Die Hard films, but the first is still the best. John McClane, on a mission to visit his wife on Christmas ends up taking on an amalgam of foreign mercenaries and criminals. Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) is the sadist holding everyone hostage, and the cat to McClane’s mouse. Classic lines, classic scenes, and justification that Bruce Willis only ever needs to play himself makes this a solid fall-back film after the classic Christmas-movie canon. (Die Hard 2 would also qualify as a Christmas movie inasmuch as it takes place on Christmas Eve, but it’s much campier than the first one and all around an exercise in explosions. While awesome, not top 5.) For a more in depth analysis of this film and its politics, you can click here. […]

]]> http://www.moviesaboutgladiators.com/2011/12/to-the-best-non-christmas-christmas-movies/#comment-1180 Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:20:36 +0000 http://www.moviesaboutgladiators.com/?p=3431#comment-1180 […] Don’t get me wrong. The first three installments were solid. The first, as I’ve noted here before, is a great Christmas movie. Really. The second is a bit more tongue in cheek, but still […]

]]>