In the end I felt a little disappointed. Instead of placing a Christmas film in one category it could appear over many, as Mark seemed more interested in an intricate examination of their contents. I have therefore only placed most of the movies under one heading, and not all those mentioned.
SCROOGE VARIATIONS
Obviously it starts with Alistair Sim's 1951 version of A Christmas Carol. Mark says this is the best of all the many adaptations of the Dicken's novel right up to Patrick Stewart's latest film.
Bill Murray's Scrooge apparently wears well. We also hear about The Muppet's Christmas Carol and the unlikely How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Bad Santa, Gremlins, Ghosts of Girlfriend's Past and Nativity.
I'm not sure why the much better Miracle on 34th Street came into this category, as it did in others to follow. And Dickens does get a look in with the very decent The Man Who Invented Christmas.
COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS
Jingle all the Way and Elf are appropriate, but what about Planes, Trains and Automobiles (Thanksgiving), Toy Story 2, Hector, Tangerine and The Silent Partner. At least Die Hard is set at Christmas and is always shown at this time of year.
GOOD GHOSTS
A bit of a repeat of the first category except we do see Clarence from Mark's favourite Christmas movie It's a Wonderful Life. Although as Mark points out, there are parts that are dark and disturbing, and I have seen it enough. Not sure about The Bishop's Wife and it's remake The Preacher's Wife.
DARK SANTAS
This was fun. Films such as Silent Night, Deadly Night and Home Alone (based on a French film), Black Christmas, The Nightmare before Christmas, Tales from the Crypt (scraping the barrel?), and some scary foreign films.
FAMILY CHRISTMAS
The awful Four Christmases and Surviving Christmas with the Relatives make the list, as does The Holly and the Ivy and others from above.
NATIVITY
Obviously the film of the same title, The Nativity Story, Black Nativity (actually looks quite good) and amazingly Monty Python's Life of Brian. Yippee.
FAR FROM HOME
At last White Christmas and it's predecessor Holiday Inn are here. Together with Meet Me in St Louis and others.
CHRISTMAS ROMANCE
Love Actually is here along with Remember the Night, Twelfth Night but why Carol even if it starts in a department store just before Christmas. However there is not a mention of The Holiday one of my favourite romcoms of all time.
THE HEALING FACTOR
This is just a round up of some of the movies discussed. Even the ending of Die Hard.
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