Holiday Movies Capture Christmas Spirit

Fleury reviews ‘Grinch,’ ‘Die Hard,’ ‘Elf,’ ‘Home Alone’

20th Century Fox

In “Home Alone,” adorable Kevin, accidentally abandoned for the holidays by his family, enjoys torturing inept burglas Marv and Harry.

Kendal Fleury ‘25, Staff writer
December 10, 2021

GRINCH

“The Grinch” has multiple versions but this one was filmed in 2018 and is directed by Yarrow Cheney and Scott Mosier. It is about the Grinch, who hates Christmas despite living above Whoville. Whoville loves Christmas and always goes all out for the holidays. This is the opposite of the Grinch and he hates it. He decides to steal Christmas and anything else related to it.

At the start of the 2018 animated remake of this holiday classic, the Grinch hates Christmas and the residents of Whoville. (Universal Pictures)

After doing this, the entire city comes together and sings a Christmas carol. When the Grinch sees this, his heart that was once three sizes too small, grows. This sparks a newfound love for the holidays in the Grinch. He then returns all of the stolen gifts and joins the people of Whoville for Christmas. 

The movie is a very sweet movie that highlights the togetherness of the holidays and the importance of family and friends. It’s a great movie to watch with the family. Overall, the movie was predictable, but sweet. It brought me into the holiday spirit. 

ELF

“Elf” was released in 2003 and was directed by Jon Favreau. The movie is about a guy named Buddy who thinks he is an elf being raised in the North Pole. He is later told that he was given up for adoption and his birth family was on the list of people who no longer believed in Santa. 

In the word of “Elf” main character Buddy, “I passed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the Lincoln Tunnel.” (HJ/T to Mr. Glowinski, who features a quote from the movie every day in his social media posts in December. (Warner Bros. Entertainment)

He travels all the way to New York to see them, but his father wants nothing to do with him. He eventually takes him in. It’s now his mission to make his father and others in New York believe in Santa. He does things like work the Christmas store in the mall, spend time with his family, and even meets a girl he ends up dating. By the end of the movie, the Christmas spirit in New York and around the world has skyrocketed because of Buddy the Elf. 

The movie is very focused on the family and Santa side of Chrstmas, which is sweet, but not for everyone. Personally, the movie is slightly overrated and played too much. Yes, it brought me into the Christmas spirit, but it’s not the best. 

DIE HARD

“Die Hard” was filmed in 1988 and was directed by John McTiernan. The movie starts with a man named John McClane flying to Los Angeles to see his wife, who he is separated from. When he gets to her Christmas Party in the Nakatomi Plaza, a group of international robbers enter the building looking for the vault. 

While some might say “Die Hard” isn’t really a Christmas movie, who says a holiday movie can’t feature cops, terrorists and explosions. (Twentieth Century Fox)

They hold everyone hostage, except John, who they don’t know is there. He slowly kills the robbers off one by one. He radios a passing cop, who ends up calling for backup after the robbers try to shoot him and his car. The rest of the movie is just John trying to not get killed by the robbers and trying to get alive. 

By the end, he and all of the hostages get out alive after he single handedly kills all of the robbers. The big controversy with this movie is whether it’s a Christmas movie or not. The movie is based at the time of Christmas and is at a building that was having a Christmas party. I can see how some think it’s a Christmas movie, but to me there aren’t enough elements to call it a Christmas movie. The overall movie was decent, but was violent so not necessarily a family Christmas movie. 

HOME ALONE

“Home Alone” was filmed in 1990 and was directed by Chris Columbus. The movie starts with a hectic family about to go on vacation. They forget one child, Kevin. They don’t realize it until they are already at the final destination. Kevin is now stuck home alone until his family can return.

To make it worse, there are robbers who stalk the house and plan on robbing it. Kevin tries his hardest to defend the house and eventually succeeds, leaving the robbers wounded and running away. His family finally returns to find that Kevin decorated the entire house for Christmas. 

Overall, the movie is hilarious and a fun family holiday movie. It’s a great movie to watch with the family. It has a Christmas spirit.