Cinematic Throwbacks: November 1983/2003/2013

1983:

You can run and hide from A Christmas Story, but it's gonna find you. 

I am not sure I can remember a time before this was the most ubiquitous of all the holiday movies. I mean, you can NOT avoid this movie. And every year for I don't know how many, I definitely have spent at least some time watching the 24 hour marathon.

And it's worth it. It's a really good movie, definitely one of the best Christmas movies.

Since I always end up watching bits and pieces of it, I probably had not simply watched the complete movie start to finish in ages before this particular rewatch. I think the reason the movie plays so well to just pop in to is that it is so episodic to begin with. Yeah there are through-lines to the plot, but mostly it's just a bunch of scenes that play just fine on their own. 

The film oozes nostalgia. Even the hazy look to the film gives off the feeling of looking back at childhood. And really, that's kind of how I think back to my Christmases as a kid. I like the theory that it takes place during the last Christmas before Pearl Harbor. It adds an extra layer of meaning.

And, you know, it's a really funny and charming movie. All the famous bits are legitmately funny. I really appreciate how the parents are written and performed so well. Ralphie is funny, and I got a lot of comedic mileage back in the day out of one of my best friends in high school looking exactly like a grown-up Ralphie.

It will always be one of my favorite bits of movie trivia that the same director made this and the original Black Christmas. It's like if John McTiernan made Love Actually. 

2003:

Making a Tupac Shakur biopic is such a pointless endeavor. Because we already have the perfect one.

Tupac Resurrection is one of the best documentaries of all time. It takes an approach that seems so simple and yet so smart. Tupac did tons of interviews during his brief career. There is so much footage and audio of him, so why not take all that material and use it to make a film that feels like he is narrating his entire life, right up to and after his fatal shooting (which, wow, is now over 27 years ago). No talking heads could possibly talk about him and be as interesting and compelling as Tupac himself. 

Tupac was still arguably at his cultural peak in 2003. They were still not done releasing posthumous albums (this movie had a single that paired up Pac and Biggie). This film felt like a definitive final statement though.

Bad Santa is one of the best Christmas movies of all time and one of the funniest movies of all time.

Few movies commit to the bit as hard as this one did. I actually have a pretty vivid memory of going to see this movie on Black Friday that year. And I was sitting next to a couple of old ladies, who were probably there expecting a nice wholesome holiday comedy. Instead they were whooping with laughter the whole time. 

Billy Bob Thornton so aced this role completely that it kind of took over his career for some years after. He did a bunch of comedies after this that were all built around him being a foul-mouthed lush and usually swearing at kids. But it wasn't just that simple idea that made Bad Santa work. It was also one of the sharpest written comedies of the decade. And it was directed by Terry Zwigoff, whose previous.film had been the classic Ghost World. The credentials were great.

It never stops being funny watching Thornton cursing at the kid. Few comedies have ever been more surgical with a well-placed expletive. 

Everyone gets in on it, with one of the best comedy ensembles of all time. Tony Cox is hysterical. Bernie Mac and then then-recently deceased John Ritter have a few hilarious scenes together. Lauren Graham plays a nonsensical character but she's fun.

Bad Santa somehow manages the nearly impossible task here of having a lead character so completely irredeemable, and never breaking from that, but also having him have an arc. And somehow the film manages to kind of have a lot of heart and some sweet moments too.

It's so good that even the massively disappointing sequel that arrived over a decade wasn't nearly enough to sap the enjoyment of this. 

2013:

The reputation would seem to tell you that Thor: The Dark World is a bad movie. That is of course completely nonsense.

The 2nd MCU after The Avengers, I was probably the most excited for this one out of all of them. Loved the first Thor movie. Obviously Natalie being back was a major factor. 

I so couldn't wait for this movie that I went straight from a Thursday night Vikings game (we beat Washington) to a midnight showing of this movie. 

So this movie is the one where Thor and Jane Foster reunite after she becomes infected with the aether (later known as the power stone). The Dark elves, led by Malekith, want the aether and attack Asgard. Loki is there, imprisoned after what happened in The Avengers, but ends up working with Thor to take down the bad guys.

So, I don't entirely disagree with a couple of the main complaints about this movie. One is that Malekith is a weak villain, and I don't disagree. He's definitely one of the weaker MCU villains. But Loki is there as a morally questionable antagonist too, so it's not that big a deal. 

The other issue is the uneven tone. Again, I don't disagree. There are a few very serious scenes in this movie that are immediately followed up by some admittedly clunky comic relief.

Natalie is of course great in this, even if she has less to do here than in the first movie. I was excited cause this was her 1st new movie in a few years at the time. 

Loki is definitely the best thing in the movie. He was way more interesting here as a more of a morally ambiguous character than he ever was as a villain. I recall being a little annoyed by the ending, where his death is shown to be a trick and he has now replaced Odin. But that stuff did pay off really well in Ragnarok. 

And the movie really nails the climax, which I think is still among the best climaxes of any MCU film. It's a really creative and fun set-up, with characters and objects getting zapped between different places.

The movie had had some production issues, with a director change (that I think prompted Natalie to not return for Ragnarok), but I really think it turned out great and is one of the more underrated MCU entries. 

Other non-deep dive flicks:

1983:

-The Day After: The famous TV movie about a nuclear war between us and Russia. I remember the big nuke scene scaring the everlasting shit out of me back in the day. 

1993:

-Mrs. Doubtfire: The huge Robin Williams hit. I saw this in theaters, thought it was fine. 

-Addams Family Values: Arguably a better sequel.

-Look Who's Talking Now: Inarguably a very bad sequel. Hang in there, John, Pulp Fiction is coming. 

-Robocop 3: Yeah, they made a third one. 

-Ruby In Paradise: Ashley Judd's first big role. 

-The Three Musketeers: This version had guys like Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland. 

-Man's Best Friend: The psychotic killer dog movie. 

-Carlito's Way: Brian DePalma's gangster movie with Al Pacino and Sean Penn. 

-The Piano: Never saw it, but it did win Oscars for Holly Hunter and a very young Anna Paquin. 

-A Perfect World: Clint Eastwood movie with Kevin Costner as an escaped convict on the run. Haven't seen this in ages but recall it being pretty good. 

2003:

-The Matrix Revolutions: After the massive disappointment of Reloaded, this movie paid the box office price. But I think this entry at least satisfied as an action movie, with the spectacular sequence of the sentinels attacking Zion. Kind of weird how sidelined the original trio is for much of the movie. 

-Love Actually: I don't have this movie up there among the best Christmas classics, but I do like it. Some of the storylines are cringe-worthy. MVPs are Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Rowan Atkinson with one of the best 1 scene performances ever, and absolute peak cuteness Keira Knightley. 

-Elf: Will Ferrell's Christmas movie is beloved (and sneaky got Jon Favreau's directing career going) but I just thought it was okay. 

-Master and Commander: Russell Crowe sailing the high seas in a film that got some awards love but I found kind of boring. 

-Gothika: One of Halle Berry's post-Oscar duds. 

-21 Grams: Spectacular performance by Naomi Watts in this. 

-The Missing: A Ron Howard dud. 

-The Haunted Mansion: The much worse movie version, this one with Eddie Murphy. 

-The Cooler: Good indie with William H. Macy as the world's unluckiest guy. Peak Maria Bello. 

2013:

-Catching Fire: The best of the Hunger Games franchise. I actually thought the weakest part of this one was the actual games themselves. The first 2 acts are really strong. 

-Dallas Buyers Club: Solid film that earned Oscars for Matthew McConaughey and, ultimately regrettably, Jared Leto. 

-Ender's Game: I think this was one of the better YA style films made in that era. Really solid performances and a good story that was taken seriously. 

-About Time: Time travel comedy that sneaks up on you with a hugely emotional ending. Great Rachel McAdams. 

-The Best Man Holiday: Hey let's do a sequel and make it a Christmas movie. 

-Nebraska: Alexander Payne movie with Will Forte and Bruce Dern on a road trip. 

-Oldboy: Spike Lee's ill-conceived remake, although it did give us one very nice Elisabeth Olsen scene. Sue me. 

Coming in December...

We got a lot. 

Wayne's World 2 turns 30.

The Return Of The King turns 20. I'll need to set aside a few days to be able to rewatch the whole thing. 

And 3 of my 2013 faves turn 10: The Wolf Of Wall Street, Inside Llewyn Davis, and the criminally underrated Anchorman 2.