30 days of bad Christmas movies - Days 10-17
Tyler Wilson Special to | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 9 years AGO
Exhaustion set in days ago.
The goal: Watch 30 new-to-me bad Christmas movies over the course of the holiday season.
With the help of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and YouTube, I’m watching Christmas-themed movies that fit at least one of the following criteria: 1. A Christmas movie released straight-to-video or to television. 2. The movie carries a reputation for being lousy. 3. A holiday movie with subject matter intended solely for children — usually featuring talking-animals and rigorous amounts of unnecessary flatulence.
A little more than halfway through the challenge, I’m on the brink of a nervous breakdown. Nobody should endure this much saccharine holiday cheer so far ahead of the actual holiday.
I’m hoping to find a new “bad” Christmas classic — a movie so stupendously awful I can add it to my Ultimate Lousy Christmas Playlist that includes “Jingle All the Way,” “Christmas with the Kranks” and “Reindeer Games” (don’t let the kids watch this one). So far, no luck, just muck… except maybe one contender? Read on.
Day 10
“Marry Me for Christmas” (2013) Netflix. A successful businesswoman pretends to be engaged to one of her employees for a family get-together at Christmas. I don’t know why, honestly. It’s been more than a week since I watched this one, and I can’t remember a single thing about it. This is true of many of these Hallmark-style holiday movies.
Day 11
“Uncle Nick” (2015) Netflix. An R-rated indie comedy about a depressed drunk (comedian Brian Posehn) who fights with his brother about his new sellout lifestyle while pining for his college-aged step-niece. Not many laughs here despite a decent cast, but an extended re-enactment of a famous incident at a Cleveland Indians baseball game woke me briefly from my offseason slumber.
Day 12
“Merry In-Laws” (2012) Hulu. George Wendt and Shelley Long reunite to play Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Wendt doesn’t grow a beard or even wear a fake one for 99 percent of this movie. Then at the end, when plot calls for Mr. Claus to look like Mr. Claus, there isn’t even a magical special effect — just lazy Norm applying a fake beard.
Day 13
“Christmas in the City” (2013) Netflix. Some fascinating things going on here. First, there’s a kid co-star, maybe 7-8 years old, wearing way too much makeup. Next, the lead is played by Ashley Williams, a lovely woman I remember from a guest stint on “How I Met Your Mother,” and she makes several mime-like acting choices. She overemotes in all her dialogue-free moments — like when a scene calls for her to smile casually, she instead reacts as if she’s an audience member on the “Ellen” show during 12 Giveaways of Christmas.
Then you have pop star Ashanti (without Ja Rule, unfortunately) playing a villainous marketing executive hired to save a fledgling department store. All the other characters hate her ideas, except that everything she does works and the store makes more money. Sure, she trades in the store Santa for a bunch of toaster-peddling, shirtless hunks dressed as elves, but business is booming.
One more thing — Ashanti’s henchman is played by a guy that looks (slightly) like Channing Tatum. I believe in my whole heart the makers of this film at least offered the part to Tatum first, and just the idea of him playing such an inconsequential character adds an extra dose of intrigue to the viewing experience. Would Channing play his “crisis-of-conscience” scene big? Or would he try a subtle way that seems small but is more emotionally true? Indeed, what would Tatum do?
In summary, this movie is amazing.
Day 13.5
“A Firehouse Christmas” on the Ion Channel. I saw five minutes near the end, and all the characters were wearing Christmas sweaters covered in soot. Obviously.
Day 14
“Beethoven’s Christmas Adventure” (2011). Netflix. A break from the apparent continuity of the first five (!) films in the franchise, this film instead establishes the giant dog as some sort of animal celebrity. When he arrives in a small town to shoot some local commercial, he comes without an owner or an agent type. Beethoven just shows up, and speaks with the voice of Tom Arnold. You will never miss the movie star wattage of Charles Grodin more.
Day 15
“The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” (2008) Hallmark/YouTube. Frequent game show host Brooke Burns plays a single mom who allows her weird uncle (Henry Winkler) to bring some random guy he met at the airport home for Christmas. Winkler wears a leather jacket and says some really cool things and… oh, my delusions are growing more and more vivid.
Day 16
“Christmas is Here Again” (2007) Netflix. A harmless little animated movie packed with a surprisingly deep bench of celebrity voices, including Andy Griffith as Santa and Ed Asner as the villain. Most of note, comedian Norm MacDonald, still one of the funniest people alive, plays a trickster fox. And he sings! Well, he sings in the way Pierce Brosnan sings in “Mamma Mia!” or Russell Crowe does in “Les Miserables,” but points for effort.
Day 17
“Journey Back to Christmas” (2016) Hallmark/YouTube. Hallmark superstar Candace Cameron Bure plays a widow during World War II who is transported to present day because of a… car accident or a comet or… something. Ooh, there’s a comet AND there’s a golden retriever in the movie that looks just like the golden retriever DJ Tanner had on “Full House,” which was named COMET. And now for a sponsored plug for season two of “Fuller House,” which released today on Netflix. Don’t judge me.
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Tyler Wilson can be reached at [email protected].
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