It's nearly December which means it's nearly time to get the tree up, drink some mulled wine and watch some overgrown man-child in a silly green suit prance around New York with a great big smile on his face. Yes this weekend I'll be watching Will Ferrell in John Favreau's
Elf. It's the film Ferrell will be remembered for. Long after the Ron Burgundy quoters have moved on to the next comedy creation, Buddy the Elf will still be being watched by kids, families and Ferrell fans at Christmas time. It's got charm, heart and a role that fits the innocence and immaturity inherent in Ferrell's persona. So the romance with Zooey Deschanel is slightly icky and James Caan could have phoned this performance in from a yacht in the Caribbean and then turned up in the last reel cackling with a sack of money but it still never fails to get me in the mood for Christmas.
This December, I'm also going to make sure I get to watch
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, the Finnish film about an evil Santa being caught by a father and son and then wreaking havoc in the remote mountain community. It sounds like a very fun, pretty silly mix of creepy fable and dark humour with just a dash of kids adventure story thrown in. I've heard it compared to
The Goonies which is a good enough reason for me to hunt this down. It's meant to an Anti-Christmas horror but hopefully just not in any way as nasty as Billy Bob Thornton's wretched
Bad Santa.
And it's really time I finally watched
It's a Wonderful Life this year once and for all. It's got the wonderful James Stewart and I feel like I know the film already from what I've heard, seen and read about it over the years. If I'm not all Christmassed out by then, I might have to re-watch
Scrooged as that's one I haven't seen for a very long time and quite frankly I miss Bill Murray.
What will you be watching this Christmas? Any recommendations?
