MERRY *&$%!-IN' CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY FILMS DRIFTING FURTHER AWAY FROM 'HEARTWARMING FAMILY FARE'.Byline: David Kronke Staff Writer Somehow over the years Christmas movies have veered from inspirational to bipolar, focusing on how cruddy crud·dy adj. crud·di·er, crud·di·est Slang Worthless, loathsome, or disgusting. crud·di·ness n. Adj. 1. most of us - if we're truly honest with ourselves - find the whole be-of-good-cheer edict A decree or law of major import promulgated by a king, queen, or other sovereign of a government. An edict can be distinguished from a public proclamation in that an edict puts a new statute into effect whereas a public proclamation is no more than a declaration of a law . Former New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times film critic Elvis Mitchell observes, ``Films manufacture what Christmas is supposed to be in the same way that they somewhat impertinently im·per·ti·nent adj. 1. Exceeding the limits of propriety or good manners; improperly forward or bold: impertinent of a child to lecture a grownup. 2. Not pertinent; irrelevant. suggest to us how we should live. But when there's a sense of real discombobulation dis·com·bob·u·late tr.v. dis·com·bob·u·lat·ed, dis·com·bob·u·lat·ing, dis·com·bob·u·lates To throw into a state of confusion. See Synonyms at confuse. , and characters have to cope with that, that's what makes for the most memorable Christmas films. Disappointment is an underlying theme, even in children's films - think of 'A Charlie Brown Christmas.' '' He adds, ``One of my favorite My Favorite is an independent synthpop band from Long Island, New York. They released two CDs: Love at Absolute Zero and Happiest Days of Our Lives. My Favorite broke up on September 14, 2005, when singer Andrea Vaughn left the band. Christmas songs is 'Christmas Dream,' which was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber Noun 1. Andrew Lloyd Webber - English composer of many successful musicals (some in collaboration with Sir Tim Rice) (born in 1948) Baron Lloyd Webber of Sydmonton, Lloyd Webber and plays at the beginning of 'The Odessa File.' To have this beautiful song in this grim action film about hunting Nazis - if that's not an encapsulation (1) In object technology, the creation of self-contained modules that contain both the data and the processing. See object-oriented programming. (2) The transmission of one network protocol within another. of Christmas and the movies, I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what is.'' This year, Christmas comes early for moviegoers. Opening today is ``Surviving Christmas,'' a comedy starring Ben Affleck as a shallow executive who tries to reconnect with the holiday spirit by hiring the family living in his boyhood home (whose patriarch is played by James Gandolfini) to portray his own family. Affleck, unsurprisingly, outlasts his welcome. Today's arrival of ``Surviving Christmas'' so warmed the heart of Bill Maher that he announced on his HBO Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) A form of oxygen therapy in which the patient breathes oxygen in a pressurized chamber. Mentioned in: Ozone Therapy series, ``New rule: No Christmas movie ads until after Halloween! ... Enough with the holiday creep. Give us a few more weeks of no stress before the hellish season of peace begins.'' ``I suppose it's emblematic of our time - or the nature of contemporary Hollywood - that while an earlier generation got 'It's a Wonderful Life' and 'Miracle on 34th Street,' we have to make do with the likes of `Surviving Christmas' and (the upcoming, crass-looking) 'Christmas With the Kranks,' '' laments ``Entertainment Tonight'' film critic and historian Leonard Maltin. ``Some people can't resist poking our sacred cows, and there's nothing wrong with that,'' Maltin continues, ``except if the results aren't funny. See 'Scrooged' or 'Home for the Holidays' or any number of other modern examples. What's worse, these movies want to have it both ways - they start out cynical and irreverent, and then, inevitably, want to tug on our heartstrings by the finale.'' Harry Elfont, one of the original writers (with Deborah Kaplan) of ``Surviving Christmas,'' says the thrust of the film changed since his draft of the script. ``We first came up with the idea of a guy who only felt safe at that home and convinced the family to play the roles. Christmas seemed to be the time to set the movie - there's a heightened pressure to be a happy family, the suicide rate goes up - it was a setting to ask how you define a family. The original concept was much different than what made it on screen, with the hero going to live with a single mom and her son and asking the woman to let him call her mom and eventually becoming attracted to her. ``It was a strange family dynamic that ended up working for all of them, but I think it was a little too creepy for the studio,'' says Elfont. David Kronke, (818) 713-3638 david.kronke(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 5 photos Photo: (1 -- cover -- color) Hollywood's dysfunctional Christmas gifts `Tis the season for cynical holiday movies, and it's here earlier than ever Jon Gerung/Staff Artist (2) ``Bad Santa'' (3) ``Scrooged'' (4) ``Nightmare Before Christmas'' (5) ``The Ref'' |
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