Never got the poor reception for this movie. I love watching this every year. Day 1 for me.
I enjoy the movie quite a bit and I'll be picking it up since it's a yearly tradition watch but I certainly understand the arguments against it.
For one, it's basically saying you must conform to your neighborhoods demands for celebrating Christmas and the lesson learned is... it was best to conform and do what your neighbors are doing all along. Don't be different! Good thing they weren't Jewish Even though the neighbors helped them in the end like good neighbors, it's not a good lesson that the main couple became pariahs just because they wanted to do something different one year and that the neighbor's didn't learn anything themselves other than mob mentality will win in the end.
Then again, are they really that incompetent that they can't budget for both things? Putting up Frosty on the roof only takes your time and a little bit of electricity, so cost is insignificant (that alone probably would have gotten most, if not, all their neighbors off their backs). Not donating to causes you've done every year puts you in bad graces too and likely was such a small part of Christmas spending; you could probably cut out one or two margarita's on your trip if you really need to have a balanced spreadsheet. Normal people would have just cut out the tree, presents, maybe tickets to the Nutcracker or other holiday festivities, to pay for the vacation, which is likely 90% of the money anyway. Of course, that wouldn't have made a such fun movie if people behaved modestly.
About damn time! Good to see Christmas Blu-ray announcements. One day for me.
What a coincidence of Dan Aykroyd another film also in same day with new announcements with My Stepmother Is an Alien (Arrow Video) and also Nothing But Trouble (Shout Select) coming too.
This movie got gored by critics when it was released—if I recall correctly, a lot of people disliked it because it presented Christmas as a mass-market, consumerist event rather than a religious holiday. I think that is a ridiculous sentiment to hold the film against, considering that for many, Christmas is more of a cultural celebration than a religious one anyway—but in the end, it shouldn't really matter.
I have always enjoyed this movie for the performances and general over-the-topness of it all. The film is funny, and it's largely because of the performances. Jamie Lee Curtis is the standout in it.
I enjoy the movie quite a bit and I'll be picking it up since it's a yearly tradition watch but I certainly understand the arguments against it.
For one, it's basically saying you must conform to your neighborhoods demands for celebrating Christmas and the lesson learned is... it was best to conform and do what your neighbors are doing all along. Don't be different!
I don’t think they were conforming to the neighborhood as much as they were to their daughter’s wishes. Luther didn’t care what they thought, but his wife wanted to make their daughter happy by making the home like it was every year growing up.
A lot of things are silly as you mentioned. They could have easily decorated a small tree at home (not borrow the neighbors) and kept it up. I would not have put Frosty up if I was going away. None of the decorating would have cost them any more money than usual (except electricity which he may have tried to cut out of the budget). But then again, if it wasn’t ridiculous to some degree, it wouldn’t be funny. No matter how much it’s bashed; we love it.
Probably the lowest it will get since it's Sony MOD. I've been waiting for stuff like Freejack and Skatetown USA to drop in price and they haven't budged.
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Even though the neighbors helped them in the end like good neighbors, it's not a good lesson that the main couple became pariahs just because they wanted to do something different one year and that the neighbor's didn't learn anything themselves other than mob mentality will win in the end.
Good to see Christmas Blu-ray announcements. One day for me.
Linear Mode
