COAL IN YOUR DVD PLAYER.Byline: David Kronke Staff Writer In the spirit of the season - Halloween? Christmas? Quite frankly, we're no longer sure - we've thoughtfully compiled a list of Christmas films to pick up on DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. for people who hate Christmas films, or, at the very least, are pretty conflicted over them. ``Bad Santa'' (Miramax Home Entertainment; $29.95. Also available in an unrated version, ``Badder Santa.'') Billy Bob Thornton plays a hard-drinking, anti-social department store Santa with an eye toward robbing his employer. He befriends/bullies a pathetic fat kid and has vigorous sex with a woman with serious Santa issues. Unsurprisingly, it was one of last Christmas' biggest hits. ``I think people were just so tired of the usual, corny kind of Christmas movie,'' says Thornton, ``where, in the end, he's gonna be a good department store guy after all, and the family's all gonna get back together. But I think people were just in a mood to see something that they could laugh at a different way. I think the climate is a little more cynical these days.'' ``The Ref'' (Buena Vista; $9.99) Corrosively funny comedy starring Denis Denis, king of Portugal: see Diniz. Leary as a burglar forced to kidnap, then counsel a bitterly unhappy couple (Kevin Spacey spac·ey adj. Slang Variant of spacy. Adj. 1. spacey - stupefied by (or as if by) some narcotic drug spaced-out, spacy unconventional - not conventional or conformist; "unconventional life styles" , Judy Davis) on Christmas Eve. Eviscerating insults fly over the family holiday meal; carolers get the door slammed in their faces. Like a lot of families' holidays, only better scripted. ``Santa Claus Conquers the Martians'' (Delta Music; $7.99) Kind of like ``The Ref,'' only without good writing and performances. Santa is taken hostage by Martians but teaches them holiday cheer. It's the rare Christmas movie whose combination of incongruity in·con·gru·i·ty n. pl. in·con·gru·i·ties 1. Lack of congruence. 2. The state or quality of being incongruous. 3. Something incongruous. Noun 1. and incompetence earned it a grilling on the ``Mystery Science Theater 3000'' barbecue. ``A Lion in Winter'' (MGM/UA; $14.95) Like ``The Ref,'' with more family squabbling, this time among royalty, but not so much like ``Santa Claus Conquers the Martians'': King Henry II (Peter O'Toole) and his estranged es·trange tr.v. es·tranged, es·trang·ing, es·trang·es 1. To make hostile, unsympathetic, or indifferent; alienate. 2. To remove from an accustomed place or set of associations. queen, Eleanor (Katherine Hepburn), have differing opinions on which of his three sons should inherit the throne - and that means having one of the sons marry his mistress, a French princess whom Henry sort of wants to hang onto. James Goldman's epigrammatic ep·i·gram·mat·ic also ep·i·gram·mat·i·cal adj. 1. Of or having the nature of an epigram. 2. Containing or given to the use of epigrams. script (adapting his own play) won an Oscar. ``Die Hard'' (Fox; $14.98) 'Tis the season to blow up a building and riddle terrorists with automatic-weapon fire. Cop John McClane (Bruce Willis), estranged from his wife (Bonnie Bedelia), comes to her company's Christmas party, and the sparks fly. ``Eyes Wide Shut'' (Warner Home Video Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video (for Warner Communications, Inc.). It was re-named Warner Home Video in 1980. ; $19.98) Stanley Kubrick's perverse sex odyssey finds Tom Cruise fending off lusty models (he was still married to Nicole Kidman at the time, both in real life and the movie, albeit unhappily at least in the film) and treating a naked bimbo who has overdosed after sexing up Sidney Pollack at a lavish Christmas party. And then, weird, sinister sex. ``It looked so great - all those lights,'' says Elfont. ``Maybe they lit the movie with Christmas lights, so they decided to set it at Christmas. People were talking for a long time - what's it about? I don't have any answers.'' ``The Dead'' (Lions Gate; $11.97 VHS (Video Home System) A half-inch, analog videocassette recorder (VCR) format introduced by JVC in 1976 to compete with Sony's Betamax, introduced a year earlier. ) Another Christmas party - albeit much more modest, just a family dinner - and another unhappy couple (Anjelica Huston and Donal McCann). But no sex whatsoever, just a despondent rumination rumination /ru·mi·na·tion/ (roo?mi-na´shun) 1. the casting up of the food to be chewed thoroughly a second time, as in cattle. 2. on existence and mortality. But filmmaking this intelligent is cause for exuberance; that John Huston's final film, based on a James Joyce short story, isn't available on DVD seems a criminal oversight. ``Gremlins'' (Warner Home Video; $19.97) Sure, your Christmas presents may be unsatisfactory, but at least they don't trash your entire city, as do the sinisterly cute beasties in this action-comedy, which features Phoebe Cates' finest moment (granted, there isn't that much competition for the title): her silly/distraught soliloquy soliloquy, the speech by a character in a literary composition, usually a play, delivered while the speaker is either alone addressing the audience directly or the other actors are silent. about finding her father, dead, stuck in the chimney dressed as Santa. ``That's one of the greatest dark Christmas stories of all time,'' Elfont says. ``That's Chris Columbus' first script - he now does traditional comedies, but he started out making one of darkest Christmas movies.'' ``Silent Night, Deadly Night'' (Anchor Bay; $19.98) Dark, you say? Here, a maniac dressed as Santa goes on a killing spree. So controversial it was pulled from some theaters but went on to spawn four sequels. ``Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas'' (Touchstone; $19.99) Jack Skellington, the guy in charge of Halloween, longs for a change of pace, so applies his peculiar talents to Christmas in a wonderfully animated movie that somehow works for both seasons. ``Scrooged'' (Paramount; $14.09). This 1988 film starring Bill Murray may have been based on Charles Dickens' ``A Christmas Carol,'' but set in the twisted world of network TV, it's hardly heartwarming heart·warm·ing or heart-warm·ing adj. 1. Causing gladness and pleasure. 2. Eliciting sympathy and tender feelings: a heartwarming tale. Adj. 1. . ``One Magic Christmas'' (Walt Disney; $19.99) Actually, this follows the sentimental template as closely as a holiday film can. We include it solely because Harry Dean Stanton Harry Dean Stanton (born July 14, 1926) is an American character actor. Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky to Ersel and Sheridan Harry Stanton, who divorced when Stanton was in high school; they later re-married. He had two younger brothers, Archie and Ralph. plays an angel, so the film somewhat quixotically quix·ot·ic also quix·ot·i·cal adj. 1. Caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; idealistic without regard to practicality. 2. encourages children to befriend be·friend tr.v. be·friend·ed, be·friend·ing, be·friends To behave as a friend to. befriend Verb to become a friend to Verb 1. craggy old men in trench coats who offer to show them the ``North Pole.'' Bob Strauss contributed to this story. David Kronke, (818) 713-3638 david.kronke(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: ``Gremlins'' |
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