Misty Krueger

It’s time to say goodbye to the Christmas movie season. There were a lot of movies I planned to watch but didn’t get around to seeing, and there were a few I viewed between December 23-25 that I have yet to talk about. Here goes!

First up: Operation Christmas Drop.

I watched this movie over a few days in twenty-minute intervals, and then on the 24th I finished up the last bit. I was skeptical about this film upon seeing it advertised on Netflix. It looked like another one of those uptight girl meets come-on-loosen-up guy, and then they fall in love and the world is grand. In a way it was just that, but there’s more to this film.

For one thing, the acting in this film is actually pretty good (as far as Xmas movies go). I like Kat Graham, and the guy playing her would-be-love-interest, Alexander Ludwig, seems goofy at first but really does a fine job of playing the role. I didn’t recognize him at first, but once I looked him up on the ‘net I found that he played Cato in The Hunger Games.

I have to say that the plot was not as predictable as one might expect for the genre, and the message of this movie is about more than romance. This film has a lot of heart, and it’s about giving, not receiving. There are some white-savior moments in the film, but that has a lot to do with the fact that the movie is based on the actual Operation Christmas Drop program, which I didn’t even realize was a real thing until after the movie was over. Lesson learned!

Next up: Die Hard. I watched this film when it first came out in 1988, and I swear that I haven’t seen it since…until December 24th. Wow. I have this memory of the walking on glass scene–which apparently traumatized me because I still kind of freak out at the thought of it–and the funny thing is that watching the movie again showed me that I had constructed a memory of John McClane walking on glass when in the film we don’t actually see him doing it. We only see his glass-poked, bloody foot afterwards.

OK. Enough of the trip into Misty’s psyche. Let’s talk about this Christmas movie–yup, Die Hard is a Christmas movie. It’s set at Christmas time, so in my book that makes it a Christmas film. It has some of those classic Christmas messages, like don’t take for granted your loved ones, say “fuck” a lot to get through tough times, and don’t try to fake an accent that will clearly show you’re not American or German. Alan Rickman does a great job in this film of being “the bad guy,” but he doesn’t sound German to me.

I love three things about this movie: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, and Reginald VelJohnson. These three are like the trifecta for me, the trinity, the…OK, I’ll stop. Actually, VelJohnson is near and dear to my heart, for he played the dad in Family Matters, which I grew up watching! He’s superb in Die Hard, IMHO.

If you haven’t seen Die Hard in a while, put it on your watch list. Yippee-ki-yay!

Last up: It’s a Wonderful Life. I try to watch this film every year, as it is also one of my favorite movies ever. This year I fell asleep about 30 minutes in on Christmas day because I drank a pretty strong margarita! I planned to go back and watch the rest of the film but never got around to it. I’ll try to watch it in full next year and blog about it then. Or maybe I’ll watch it on New Year’s Day because it also feels like a NYD movie.

For now, I’m all done with Xmas movies. I look forward to 2021 Christmas time, and I pray to the godz that I’ll be spending it with my family, and you with yours.

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!