I guess you could say it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Well, it’s December and I’m slowly but surely getting into the Christmas spirit. Without being overly saccharine, I like Christmas. It’s not my favourite holiday of the year and there’s aspects about Christmas that I greatly dislike, but I generally find it to be a cosy time of the year… at least once you’ve put up all the decorations and done all the shopping. Shopping, in particular, looks set to be an even bigger pain in the ass than usual this year, but I’m hoping it won’t be too much of a hassle as long as I don’t leave everything to the last minute like I usually do. I might go out and do some Christmas shopping this week just so I can get it over and done with.

Of course, now that it’s Christmas, I’m also thinking about the age-old debate whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie. I’ve heard all the arguments for and against its case as a Christmas movie. Personally, I don’t think it really matters if Die Hard does or does not have the necessary Christmas credentials because I watch it every year during the holidays. In fact, most of my regular Christmas viewing is made up of what I would call “alternative Christmas” movies or “alternative Christmas” specials. This would include things like Gremlins, Batman Returns, any movie written by Shane Black, that one Sopranos episode where Tony gets one of his mobsters to dress up as Santa Claus, the White Christmas episode of Black Mirror and of course, the first two Die Hard movies. Maybe I could write an essay about “alternative Christmas” movies somewhere down the line.

Speaking of Die Hard, I watched the second film again when it was on RTE Two the other night and it has probably one of my favourite pre-execution one-liners in an action movie. I love the bit where Robert Patrick shoots the SWAT officer point blank in the head after calling him a sitting duck. Honestly, that’s one thing I like about the villains in this film. They’re probably the meanest bastards John McClane has ever fought but they do have some damn good one-liners even when they’re casually killing people like it’s no big deal. Yeah, I’m not right in the head.

I got some other things in the back of my hand that I’d like to write about but I’m a little crunched for time and besides, I’ve already been remissed enough as it is. So, take care.