Laughing Through Christmas

ELF

“Elf” was released in 2003. It’s a Christmas comedy. The movie has become a Christmas standard and is listed among the best Christmas films of all time. It inspired the 2010 Broadway musical “Elf: The Musical” and NBC’s 2014 stop motion animated TV special “Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas”.

Who could possibly not be delighted by a film that starts off with Bob Newhart as Papa Elf. Not only that, but guess who’s playing Santa? In the role of Santa we see Edward Asner. The elves at the North Pole are all busy with making toys. There is one thing wrong though and that is an elf whose human sized and not really an elf at all. Then we have James Caan as Walter Hobbs, who we later learn is the biological father of Buddy, the Elf.

It might seem kind of odd to find James Caan in a Christmas movie but you can be sure he is well cast in this role. Walter Hobbs works for Greenway Press, a children’s book publishing company working at the Empire State Building in New York City. When we first see him we realize this is a man who is all work and no play. Both his son Michael and his wife Emily could do with a lot more attention from him but he doesn’t realize this. His goal in life is to earn money, have all he requires, and is quite selfish.

When Buddy is told the truth about not really being an elf and Santa informs him his real father is on the Naughty List because of his selfishness Buddy decides to head for the big city to see if he can bring the spirit of Christmas to his father. Imagine this man Walter Hobbs who doesn’t believe in anything Christmas suddenly discovering that he once fathered a child who now is a grown man and believes he is an elf. It just tickles the funny bone.

As the movie progresses we discover how Buddy came to be at the North Pole and was accepted by the elf community. However, growing bigger and finally outgrowing all the elves was not easy for Buddy. Meeting his father and finding out that his father does not accept him as his son and doesn’t even want him around is hard for this elf. Buddy finds work at Gimbel’s department store and for the first time in his life finds out what romance is when he meets a woman named Jovie.

This movie offers lots of laughs, many home truths like Walter Hobbs finding out Buddy is really his son, a time of learning when Buddy is brought to the Hobbs home and meets his stepmother Ellie and half-brother Michael. By this time just watching the movie makes you smile and eager to find out what will happen next. The ending will reunite Buddy with Santa. Jovie, Walter, and all the people of New York City will unite together singing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” providing Santa with the Christmas spirit he needs to get his sleigh to fly through the skies.

In the end, you might want to shed a few tears of happiness and it really is a wonderful happy ending. Watch it you’ll enjoy it and if you have already seen it then it really is a movie worth seeing every Christmas.

Surviving Christmas

“Surviving Christmas” was released in 2004. It is a romantic comedy that is based on a story by Elfont and Kaplan. The casting is great but also a bit surprising. It might be kind of hard to imagine James Gandolfini in a Christmas movie since his claim to fame was portraying Tony Soprano in the popular TV series “The Sopranos”. However, in this movie, he proves what a versatile actor he really is and is great in his role as Tom Valco. He has great help from the actors in the leading roles like Ben Affleck portraying Drew, Catherine O’Hara as Christine, Tom’s wife, and Christine Applegate as Alicia, Tom’s daughter, and is rounded off by Josh Zuckerman as Brian, Tom’s son. We remember Catherine O’Hara from the classic Christmas movie “Home Alone” and Christine Applegate became popular in the TV series “Married with Children”.

The movie begins before Christmas when we see wealthy advertising executive Drew Latham portrayed by Ben Affleck surprising his girlfriend Missy portrayed by Jennifer Morrison with first-class tickets to Fiji for the holidays. She is horrified to find out that he doesn’t want to spend Christmas with his family. Since Drew has not family but has not told his girlfriend anything about how he grew up she assumes he is not serious enough about their relationship to introduce her to his family and leaves him. Desperate not to be alone for Christmas Drew has his assistant send Missy a Cartier bracelet as an apology. Then calls all the people he calls “friends” to discover no one wants to have him spend Christmas with them.

Feeling completely hopeless and abandoned Drew finds Dr. Freeman, his girlfriend Missy’s therapist at the airport embarking on a holiday trip, and requests a therapy session. The doctor tells him to make a list of all his grievances and then burn them at his childhood home. That is when the Christmas craziness in this movie really begins. A taxi brings Drew to his old childhood home and he sets his list of grievances on fire on the front lawn of the home.

Christine notices someone outside their house and tells her husband Tony. Tony seeing someone burning something on his front lawn sneaks up behind Drew and whacks him over the head with a shovel knocking him out. When Drew comes to he is delighted to see himself in his old childhood home and asks to be shown around. He then offers Tony $250,000 to let him spend Christmas with the family. Tony accepts the offer and Drew’s lawyer draws up a contract that the Valcos must pose as his family.

It then becomes like a delightful farce with Drew forcing the family to go out and to buy a Christmas tree and makes Tom wear a Santa hat in public. As they begin trimming the Christmas tree Tom’s daughter Alicia arrives displeasing Drew since he was not expecting another family member. Alicia in turn, does not want to accept Drew as part of her family. Drew also writes up a script for the family to read at the table at dinner and hires a local actor to play his grandfather portrayed by Bill Macy and calls him Doo-Dah. For another $25,000 Tom agrees to let Doo-Dah stay with them for the holidays.

The money and the fun just keep piling up as well as additional complications. Tom’s son Brian has been put out in the garage because he was in Drew’s old room and Drew wanted to stay there himself. Alicia resents all the changes but finds herself drawn to Drew. Drew encourages Christine who was on the verge of divorcing Tom to glamor herself up and arranges for a photographer to take some glamor shots of her. Tom in the meantime purchases a Chevell SS which he had in high school at the time he was dating Christine.

In the meantime, Drew’s girlfriend Missy overwhelmed by the bracelet he gave her finds out through Drew’s assistant that he’s spending the holidays with his family. Drew quickly gives an extra $75,000 to the Valco’s to keep playing along as his family with the arrival of Missy and her family. Now Alicia has to pretend she is Drew’s sister and in the meantime something occurs that makes Brian discover something awful about those photos his mom had taken. Everything winds up in a real jumble with Missy and her parents leaving the Valco’s house quickly and Tom moving to a hotel. But despite it all, there are still plenty of laughs to be had, and guess what? It is a very happy ending.

Jingle All the Way

“Jingle All the Way” was released in 1996 as a Christmas family comedy. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as mattress salesman Howard Langston. Langston is a workaholic and often winds up neglecting his young six-year-old son Jamie and his lovely wife Liz. The really funny parts of the movie begin when once again Howard has forgotten to do what his wife asked him to do way before Christmas. All Jamie really wants for Christmas this year is the popular action figure Turbo-Man which he knows his best friend Johnny, the boy next door will get from his father Ted Maitlin portrayed by Phil Hartman.

Unfortunately, Howard has once again forgotten this request and sets out on Christmas Eve of all days to look for this popular toy which has already been sold out by all the stores in the area. The movie is a fun farce all the way when in his quest for Turbo-Man Howard butts heads with another dad on the same mission Myron Larabee, a postman portrayed by Sinbad. The movie was filmed in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul at such locations as the Mall of America. The ending of the movie was shot in California.

There are comedic scenes throughout the movie that will keep you laughing while Howard is running all over town looking for Turbo-Man his next-door neighbor Ted Maitlin is trying to move in on his wife. The divorced man is hoping to make her realize he is the ideal husband plus his son Johnny is already best friends with her son Jamie. While Liz is not interested Ted seems to be everywhere even helping her with her holiday cookie baking.

Meanwhile, we see Howard in many comedic occurrences like winding up trying to buy a Turbo-Man action figure from a Santa counterfeit ring which turns out bad but he manages to narrowly escape when they are raided by the police. He tries to keep in touch with his son at home who keeps reminding him that he promised to go to the annual Holiday Wintertainment Parade with him and his mom. The search for the elusive toy continues and Howard finds himself once again confronted by Myron at a diner. While the two men are discussing their problems they hear an announcement over the radio that the local radio station has a competition to win a Turbo-Man doll.

A hysterically funny chase occurs between the two men to the local radio station to be told by the DJ that they station doesn’t have the action figure but one of them could win a gift certificate to purchase the toy. Both men get rather hot under the collar and the DJ has called the cops. Myron threatens the police with what he thinks is a phony letter bomb. Both Myron and Howard get away from the police but as Officer Alexander Hummell inspects the package left behind it actually detonates in his face.

Meanwhile, Howard returns to his Suburban to find it has been stripped by car thieves. He is at the end of his rope when he returns home and not quite realizing what the consequences might be he sneaks into his neighbor’s house and attempts to steal the Turbo-Man gift from under the Christmas tree. Once again things backfire and he is caught in the act by his neighbor and his own wife Liz. Ted Maitlin finds this an agreeable situation to put another move on Liz and takes her and both boys Jamie and Johnny to the Christmas parade.

Is Howard Langston done for? Don’t bet on it. Luck is on his side and he becomes the hero of the day at the Christmas parade something you’ll enjoy cheering for and it all ends with a delightful comic but happy ending.

Deck the Halls

“Deck the Halls” was released in 2006. It is a Christmas comedy but did not get the recognition it really deserved. However, it is a movie to really put you in the holiday mood and provides a lot of laughs. The story revolves around two neighbors Steve Finch portrayed by Matthew Broderick and Buddy Hall played by Danny DeVito. These two neighbors live right across the street from one another. They live in the fictional town of Cloverdale, Massachusetts. Finch is an optometrist who wants his family to have a Christmas full of traditions like an Advent calendar, taking Christmas photos with the family in matching sweaters, and buying a large Christmas tree. Meantime Hall is determined to decorate his house so that it is so bright it can be seen from space and that takes a lot of decorating.

After Kelly portrayed by Kristin Davis takes her daughter Madison played by Alia Shawkat and her son Carter played by Dylan Blue across the street to the Hall house the two wives Kelly and Tina portrayed by Kristin Chenoweth become fast friends. Madison makes friends with twin daughters Ashley played by Kelly Aldridge and Emily by Sabrina Aldrige.

Buddy Hall is a used car salesman whose obsession with decorating his house begins when he discovers that the neighborhood can be seen on satellite photos but his house isn’t visible. In his quest to make it visible, he goes all out with Christmas light decorations. As his displays get bigger and bigger his neighbor Steve gets madder and madder. Steve finds out that his position in town as the “Christmas guy” is threatened as Buddy becomes more known around town.

Soon things start getting out of hand as two of Buddy’s phonophobic feral horses get startled by sleigh bells and take Steve on a wild ride which ends with him falling into a frozen lake. Then during one of Buddy’s light shows Steve’s car doors get ripped off and his private Christmas tree lot is destroyed by a fire when Buddy accidentally spills gasoline with his chainsaw,

The two men wind up making a bet. If Steve beats Buddy in the WinterFest speedskating race then Buddy has to remove his lights and if Buddy beats Steve, Steve pays for the car supposedly Buddy “bought” him. As it turns out Buddy wins but Steve hurts him by yelling at him that he is a nobody since his house is still not visible from space. So Buddy buys a huge amount of programmable LED lights by hocking his wife Tia’s expensive heirloom vase and she and his daughters leave him.

Next up for comic relief, Steve purchases fireworks among them the Atomic Warlord, a large, illegal military-grade rocket from a gangster, and attempts to destroy the Hall house. The rocket misfires and sets the town Christmas tree on fire and Steve’s family leaves him. Steve also discovers that Buddy has been stealing power from him to light some of his lights. In the end, as Buddy starts to take down his lights, Steve forgives him and well you’ll have to watch the entire movie to see how it all ends but it certainly is an ending that will keep you smiling and even cheering.

Christmas with the Kranks

“Christmas with the Kranks” was released in 2004. It is a Christmas comedy based on the novel “Skipping Christmas” by John Grisham. The movie has an all-star cast that includes Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis in the leading roles. In Riverside, Illinois a couple Luther portrayed by Tim Allen and Nora Krank played by Jamie Lee Curtis plan to skip Christmas since this would be the first Christmas their daughter Blair played by Julie Gonzalo will be away on the holidays for a Peace Corps assignment in Peru.

Tom decides that they could save a lot of money on Christmas by just going away and insists they take a ten-day Caribbean cruise. However, their decision does not involve just themselves. Every Christmas since their block has seen all the neighbors place big Frosty the Snowman decorations on top of their houses. All of the houses have always been beautifully decorated but this year the Kranks want to do none of that. They just want to get away for Christmas. Soon they become pariahs to the neighbors due to their decision to skip the holidays. Vic Frohmeyer their domineering neighbor organizes a campaign to force the Kranks to do all the things they usually did for Christmas like putting up Frosty the Snowman and decorating their house. Vic’s son Spike played by Eric Per Sullivan gathers up other children all to demand the Kranks put up the snowman and the local newspaper prints a front page story about the Kranks' refusals to be part of Christmas this year and a photo of their unlit house. Of course, taking it all is easier for Luther since he leaves for work each day and his wife Nora stays behind to take all the abuse and soon her nerves are quite frayed.

Finally, for Luther and Nora, their day arrives when they are packing to leave for the cruise on Christmas Eve morning. As they are busy trying to get it all done the phone rings. It is their daughter Blair who informs them that she is at Miami International Airport looking forward to spending Christmas with her parents and bringing along her Peruvian fiance Enrique as an added surprise. She looks forward to the decorated house and the Christmas party always given by her parents with all the neighbors attending. However, this year nothing has been prepared, the house is not decorated, and there are no plans for a party but Blair doesn’t know any of this. Now the real fun begins can it all get done before she and Enrique arrive?

Enjoy watching and you’ll find a happy ending, some tear-shedding, and a Merry Christmas is had by all.