00:00The Christmas movie is best watched in the lead-up to Christmas before it gets really hectic.
00:05My first favourite Christmas film is a bit of a cheat one
00:08because you can watch it on Halloween and also Christmas, but it's A Nightmare Before Christmas.
00:22Tim Broden at his best and I feel like when I watch it at Halloween
00:26different kind of themes come out than when I watch it at Christmas.
00:29Henry Selick's stop animation and Danny Elfman's soundtrack, it's just so much fun.
00:35Jack Skeleton comes into Christmas town and he discovers snow and Santa and elves.
00:41It just like captures the magic of Christmas for the first time.
00:44Another one of my favourite Christmas films is How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
00:48It's the 2000 film starring Jim Carrey by Ron Howard.
00:52The narrative arc of he's a green fluffy Christmas hater
00:56and he has his heart warmed by kindness and love.
01:00I feel like the performances are just so good.
01:02Jim Carrey at his best.
01:04Yeah, I have very fond memories of watching that film every year.
01:086.30, dinner with me. I can't cancel that again.
01:11My final top Christmas film of all time is about a boy, which I feel like people forget is a Christmas film
01:17and I also forget it's a Christmas film, but whenever the festive season rolls around
01:21I find myself gravitating towards that more than other rom-coms of that time.
01:27I think I killed a duck. I was only trying to feed it.
01:36Hugh Grant plays this emotionally unavailable bachelor who meets Nicholas Holt,
01:41who has grown into this phenomenal actor and you can already see it when he's such a young boy.
01:47Hugh Grant, something about him just screams Christmas.
01:50By the time the credits roll on that film I feel a little warm and fuzzy inside
01:55and that's what a Christmas film should do.
01:58First up we have an obvious one, but an obvious one for a good reason.
02:02It's It's A Wonderful Life.
02:04Mr and Mrs Martini, welcome home.
02:07This is what I wished for.
02:10You see George, you really had a wonderful life.
02:15It's one of the most baffling things when you read that It's A Wonderful Life was actually a bit of a flop
02:23and not well reviewed at the time of release.
02:25But over the last, you know, like seven decades it's become one of the greatest,
02:30not just Christmas films of all time, but films of all time for good reason.
02:33It's message. It's message is evergreen.
02:36Look daddy, teacher says every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.
02:45That's right. That's right.
02:48It's a tale of how, you know, however bad things can get,
02:53they're not all that bad when you've got people around you who love you, who care for you.
02:57You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.
03:02Number two is a bit of a different vibe, but just as good.
03:08The Muppet Christmas Carol.
03:10I'll drink to Mr Scrooge, even though he is odious, stingy and badly dressed.
03:16I'm back.
03:18There goes Mr Humbug, there goes Mr Grim.
03:22The sense of childlike wonder I feel whenever I switch that film on,
03:26it really, it surprises me because I always think,
03:28oh, this is the year I'm going to watch it and the magic's going to be lost.
03:31But no, I switch it on and within seconds I'm back there, you know,
03:34and I think that's great for that nostalgic factor.
03:36But it's also a testament to how good that film is.
03:39Do you think it's safe for us to be up here?
03:43If they gave a prize for being mean, the winner would be him.
03:47Yes, Mr Cratchit.
03:48If you please, Mr Scrooge.
03:50The bookkeeping staff would like to have an extra shovel full of coal for the fire.
03:53Why are you such a frozen?
03:55How would the bookkeepers like to be suddenly?
03:58Unemployed!
04:00Heat wave, oi!
04:01This is my island in the sun, oi!
04:04The next one is, I'm going to find out, it's not my favourite, one of my favourite Christmas films of all time.
04:09But what it is, is a recent Christmas film that I think needs more love.
04:13And I threw it on one night while I was wrapping presents, got a takeaway.
04:16And honestly, Christmas felt like it had begun around me.
04:20And that's what you want when you want a Christmas film.
04:22You want to watch something and you feel like you haven't wasted your time.
04:24And for me, that is, this is Christmas.
04:27A stranger is just a friend you haven't met before.
04:32I like to believe it's true.
04:34I had a religious moment on the train.
04:38I thought, why are we not all, like, friends?
04:41I'd like to invite everyone on this train to a Christmas party.
04:45Never engage on a commute.
04:48Maybe a show of hands might be helpful.
04:51I'm serious, trust me.
04:53It's about a train of commuters travelling into London from Surrey
04:57and they rub shoulders without knowing who they are all year round
05:02and one Christmas this guy takes it upon himself to go,
05:05you know what, we all know each other in a way.
05:07Like, this is our time, this is our spot on the train.
05:10Why don't we get together and have a Christmas gathering?
05:12Which sounds really embarrassing and cringe
05:14and if you were in that situation in real life
05:16you'd just put on your headphones and put your hoodie up.
05:19You're really serious about this.
05:21Maybe you can help.
05:23Everything sorted apart from the food and the drinks
05:25and the music and the venue.
05:27Well, I must have a screw loose.
05:29Good, thank you very much.
05:30I'm going to start with an old staple for me.
05:33It came out in 1991.
05:36I saw it in the cinema.
05:38I am that old.
05:39It made Macaulay Culkin an absolute global icon.
05:42It was Home Alone, of course.
05:43It made half a billion dollars worldwide
05:45and became one of the biggest comedies of all time.
05:47Fifteen people in this house.
05:49You're the only one who has to make trouble.
05:51Everyone in this family hates me.
05:53Look what you did, you little jerk.
05:55Then maybe you should ask Santa for a new family.
05:57I didn't want a new family.
05:58I didn't want a new family.
05:59I didn't want to see you again for the rest of my whole life.
06:01I hope you don't mean that.
06:03You'd feel pretty sad if you woke up tomorrow morning
06:06and you didn't have a family.
06:08No, I wouldn't.
06:13Hello?
06:14Hope we didn't forget anything.
06:17I've made my family disappear.
06:21Kevin!
06:22It kind of tapped into that amazing fantasy that you have as a kid
06:27of being able to be left alone by your parents
06:29where you can eat junk food,
06:31you can just do what the hell you want.
06:33But then the second half of the film,
06:35it kind of, when the two burglars descend on the house,
06:38that ridiculously oversized affluent house that they have,
06:42then it becomes a kind of slapstick,
06:45you know, repackaged for the Nintendo generation.
06:49You know, you get a blowtorch to the face,
06:51an upturned nail,
06:53Jay Pesci falling down the stairs countless times.
06:56It was a really kind of, like, you know,
06:59wonderful experience to watch as a child,
07:01and every time I see it now,
07:02obviously the whole experience is gloriously tinged with nostalgia.
07:05If I have to sell my sword to the devil himself,
07:10I am going to get home to my son.
07:13Like you're dealing with.
07:15I'm the man of the house.
07:18This is it.
07:20Where are you, you little creep?
07:27So my favourite Christmas film
07:29is Joe Dante's classic creature feature
07:33from 1984, the year I was born, Gremlins.
07:37What is it?
07:38It's your new pet.
07:40You've got to keep him out of bright light.
07:42Number two, keep him away from water.
07:47This is incredible.
07:50And probably the most important thing,
07:52don't ever feed him after midnight.
07:55The film is a perfect Christmassy cocktail
07:58of festive cheer, love and family,
08:02and, you know, impossibly cute animals
08:05that if you feed them after midnight,
08:08you will 100% regret that.
08:10It's a film that, you know, has these rules,
08:13which I feel is kind of like a metaphor for Christmas,
08:16because, you know, at Christmas you're not meant to
08:18peek at the presents, you're not meant to behave,
08:20don't be naughty.
08:22You know, if you feed one of these mogwai
08:25after midnight, you know,
08:26they turn into a little green monster
08:28that might be down the pub smoking cigars
08:30or, you know, heckling Snow White,
08:32or just, you know, eating someone.
08:35So there is a kind of metaphor to Gremlins,
08:38which I think is a really brilliant theory
08:40that I've come up with all my own.
08:42It also subverts all the kind of Christmas tropes.
08:44You know, you've got the Gremlins
08:46singing terribly at Christmas carols, mockingly.
08:50You've got them in the pub, as I said,
08:52you know, going down, getting absolutely hammered,
08:54smoking cigars, terrorising the patrons,
08:57which could be, you know,
08:59just us down the pub on Christmas Eve anyway.
09:01And, you know, all of it kind of mocks
09:04the way that we've become so commercial
09:07and so fake.
09:09It's a subversive film that also happens to be
09:11not just one of my favourite Christmas films,
09:13but one of my favourite films, full stop.
09:15Kindled.
09:16.
09:20.
09:25.
09:28.
09:30.
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