By Aria Cummings
With winter break soon approaching, you might find yourself either bored or not being able to find anything good to watch on T.V. Not to worry, as I have put together a list of several movies to get you through your winter break boredom. And while some of these films may not be for everyone, they still have enough engaging material to cure your winter blues.
Elf
This 2003 holiday comedy stars Will Ferrell as Buddy, a human who, when he was a child, accidentally crawled his way into Santa’s gift bag. Afterwards, he wound up living a majority of his life in the North Pole and being raised by elves. After finding out that his father, Walter Hobbs, is on Santa’s naughty list, Buddy goes on a quest to find him, which ends up taking him to New York City and finding out that life in the Big Apple is somewhat different than making toys for all the good boys and girls of the world.This a very funny and heart-warming holiday movie, with fantastic performances by Ferrell as Buddy and James Caan as Buddy’s father,Walter. Overall, this is one movie that will definitely bring you lots of laughs and will also put you in the holiday mood.
The Harry Potter Series
With the success of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book series, it was only a matter of time before they twould be turned into a blockbuster film series that still endures to this very day. A word of warning, though: if you have never read any of the books, make sure you do, otherwise you probably won’t be able to understand what’s going on half of the time. Anyway, while the first three films in the series have the slow transition from going light to dark with their content, things really start to go bleak with the fourth entry, “The Goblet of Fire,” where the main villain of the franchise, Lord Voldemort, makes his grand appearance. Other than that, each film brings its own flavor to the series, as some of the films had different directors instead of one person directing all of the films themselves. And while having different directors may hurt some franchises, this actually worked in favor of the “Harry Potter” franchise, as all of the directors were able to add something new to the table and added their own unique styles of filmmaking. So, whether you’re a hardcore “Harry Potter” fan, or you want to see a really great book-to-film series that doesn’t have the same cheesy romantic garbage as “Twilight,” then this is a great film series that will, without a doubt, keep you entertained. Oh, and as a side note, make sure you have a box of tissues handy, just in case something happens and you get very teary-eyed.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
With this movie, a lot of people are under the misconception that it was directed by Tim Burton, but that’s not true, because Burton actually co-wrote and produced the movie, while the director was Henry Selick. So, with that out of the way, let’s get to talking about the film, shall we? The movie follows the adventures of Jack Skellington, also known as “The Pumpkin King,” who lives in fictitious land of Halloween Town, where he leads the annual Halloween holiday. But when Jack gets bored of the same routine every year, he accidentally stumbles into a portal that takes him to Christmas Town, where the annual celebration is led by Santa Claus. After Jack gets back he starts obsessing over Christmas and is determined to usurp Santa and do things his own way, which ends in disaster. Now, while this movie is seen as one that can be shown during Halloween, it can also be a Christmas film as well. However, if you don’t celebrate Christmas, then you may want to avoid this one, but if you feel like this childhood classic puts you in the most festive of moods no matter what holiday you celebrate, then by all means give it a watch.
The Santa Clause Trilogy
This series of films stars Tim Allen as Scott Calvin, a divorced father and advertising executive from Chicago, IL, who accidentally causes Santa fall on his front yard. Because of what happened, Calvin is now given the full responsibilities of actually being Santa Claus. In the first film, Calvin has to try to adjust to this change in his life, and while at first he tries to convince himself and those around him that it was all a dream and nothing more, he eventually realizes that he really is Santa and nothing is ever going to change that. In the second movie, Calvin learns that unless he finds a wife by Christmas Eve, he will no longer be Santa and Christmas will die away. Allen does a great job at portraying Calvin as the optimistic and jolly Santa Claus, as well as the man who is struggling to keep his real identity a secret for fear of rejection from his potential future wife. There is also a great subplot involving a toy replica of Santa that goes a little haywire and takes the process of dividing the naughty and nice kids way too seriously. In the final film, Calvin not only has to deal with meeting his new wife’s parents, but also with the mischievous Jack Frost, played by Martin Short, who wants to take Calvin’s position as Santa by making Calvin wish that he had never been Santa at all. The rest of the film shows Calvin trying to reverse what Frost had done and making sure that everything is made right. This film series does have some good comedic scenes, as well as some heart-warming ones as well. So, if you like Tim Allen or you’ve never seen any of these movies before, then I highly recommend them
