Eleven Pipers Piping

If you weren’t scared by the Ghosts of Christmas, perhaps Gremlins can give you a scare.

Crap. I have nothing to say about this one. It’s a better fright story than A Christmas Carol. Watch it.

Christmas theme? Mayhem! You know that feeling when you play Santa handing out the presents. It’s just like a host of gremlins running through town. It’s madness.

Christmas mayhem! Onward to madness! Like gremlins.

That’s all I’ve got…

Ten Lords A-leaping

News Radio (Xmas Story)

The guy in the Santa suit ho-ho-ho-ing and ringing his bell could be dangerous. If you don’t believe me just ask Bill McNeal. The Santa harassed him making him wary of the harm that could be done to him. Except it turned out to be a stunt to get Bill McNeal to listen to the Santa’s audition tape. It turns out the Santa was looking for advice on getting a job in radio. Or was it?

Mr. James gets a Yankees autographed jersey, and he gets the staff baseball caps. Except the staff isn’t thrilled. To make up for it, Mr. James buys them all cars except Matthew who gets an old-timey radio comedy show. Is that enough for them?

Christmas theme is bad presents. Not getting what you had wished for. Admittedly, this ain’t a theme, but something that occurs always during Christmas. If you wanted it so bad, you should’ve bought it yourself. On the flip side, cash is always good; don’t buy lame presents.

The chance for something lame greatly increases with the amount of presents you get. I got very few presents this year. Thanks, Santa!

Nine Ladies Dancing

The X-Files (How The Ghost Stole Christmas)

Christmas time finds Mulder and Scully investigating a haunted house in Maryland. The duo find two desiccated bodies under the floor boards. The corpses are wearing the duos outfits. The duo are on a wild ghost hunt. They meet up with the former occupants of the house who committed suicide on Christmas Eve in the past. The ghosts delve into the two FBI agents’ complicated relationship.

One of the worst episodes of the X-Files. The concept was cute by a half.

Christmas theme: Need to be connected to someone. Sceptic with the believer. Both afraid of the loneliness. Sharing the holiday season with someone who understands you.

I miss the internet community that The X-Files spawned. And Scully in her short bob. Mmmm, Scully!

Eight Maids A-milking

You! Yes you. What day is it? New Year’s? Have I been asleep all this time since Christmas? No, don’t answer that? I say though do you know the butcher on the next street over? Do you know if they’ve sold the goose hanging in the window? Still there! Good! Here’s a farthing fetch me the butcher. Bring him back with the goose in 10 minutes, and you’ll get another farthing!

Happy New Year!

I just substituted New Year with Christmas, but as we all know that scene is from A Christmas Carol. I’m finally getting you back to a familiar holiday treat. Yes, a week late, but we can go back in time to witness what Christmas means to a humbug of a man.

Usually, this is when I summarize the movies story, but if you don’t know it by now. Get thee to a library.

The Christmas theme for today is Christmas Day! Happy New Year! Nothing like thinking about Christmas Day than to start 358 days away to getting there. Remember where your Christmas Spirit should be; in the here, in the now, in the next. Nothing better than to start being Christmas than to start on the first day of the year.

So remember, be Christmas year round lest the Ghosts of Chrismas Past, Present and Future come to visit you.

Seven Swans A-swimming

New Year’s Eve. It’s a new movie opening this weekend. I don’t think I want to subject you, my readers, to something that painful so I’m gonna fall back to one of my favorite Coen movies, The Hudsucker Proxy.

Norville Barnes, a hick from Muncie, Indiana, peers perilously over the ledge as the clock strikes twelve on New Year’s Eve. He wants to take his life because he was a failure at being the CEO of the Hudsucker Corporation, but he was just a stooge put in place by the board to drive the stock down. At the disastrously lowered price, the board members wanted purchase the stock on the cheap. Needless to say, Norville’s idiocy guides the Hudsucker Corporation to new heights especially with the introduction of the hula-hoop, Norville’s invention.

Amy Archer is a Pulitzer winning journalist who spies something funny about Norville Barnes as CEO, and she decides to investigate him. She poses as a fellow Muncian and becomes Norville’s secretary. She finds out how much of an idiot he is, but also that there is some genius to his idiocy. She falls in love, yet, she exposes his idiocy and causes his downfall. “How could you a fellow Muncian?” Queue the climb to the ledge.

The Christmas theme today is the circular notion of “what comes around goes around.” Christmas comes just once a year. It’s gone, but it will be back again next year. Live for that and it will come around again. Give and you shall receive. Or as they said in the movie karma.

The big O! “You know, for kids!”

So as you celebrate New Year’s Eve remember, you do get a second chance. It’ll come around again in a year’s time.

Best Pictures List 2011

I’ve become really stingy when it comes to doling out stars in my reviews. I only gave one movie a plus positive rating of four stars or more from all the movies I’ve seen this year. My list is so meager that I’m adding in the best movie I saw this year which happened to be on DVD. Also, the other movie I added is considered the best picture from last year, but I saw it this calendar year. There’s plenty of 3 star movies this year and there are also plenty of two stars or less. It’s depressing. Movies haven’t moved me in awhile. Perhaps I may see something on the last day which would.

L’Illusioniste on DVD (5 stars)
The King’s Speech (5 stars)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (4 stars)