The Christmas TV Strategy Guide 2024 #04

Couple of classic musicals for breakfast? Sure thing buddy! Fred Astaire’s comeback film is a proper banger teaming him with Judy Garland for the first time. And then the film that gave the world Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas? What a double bill.

Yes please I’ll have some more Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes, thank you very much. Then a gen-you-wine actually classic in 13 Angry Men. It’s a bit of a step up in quality and no mistake, its also one of the best debut films out there

Video game movies have had a bad reputation since, well, Mario Bros dared to give Bowser weird spiky blonde hair. And it’s been a rocky road since then, with a few minor ups and loads more downs. Until Sonic arrived and pretty much got it right, right? Pretty much. Cards on the table, I’d put this down to the effort James Marsden puts in, cementing his legacy as one of the best Acting-With-An-Invisible-CG-Buddy actors, taking the crown from Matthew Lillard and his sterling work in the first Scooby Doo film

Another classic! A cracking team up from Paul Newman and Robert Redford, coupled with Robert Shaw at his angry best and you have a 5 star movie. It’s not wrong when it says 5 stars up there, this is well worth all 5

One of the best looking Pixar films here, they really take that Day of The Dead art style and wring every drop out of it they can. It also helps it’s a great film as well, with some cracking songs including one that somehow manages to be really happy, funny and heartbreakingly sad all at the same time. Yay for crying!

What is it with the bangers today? Another brilliant musical from the Golden Age, with some proper knee slapping classics in all their Technicolor glory

I’ll always love this film, easily one of the defining films of my youth. It’s just great, right? That worn down New York aesthetic, the effects, the comedy, it all comes together well. And you can take all the pop songs in it, that Elmer Bernstein score is the true all timer for me

Consider me a Monsterverse nut. Is that what the fans of that series are called? Well, they are now. I have to say, when that first Godzilla film in 2014 popped up I was not sure at all, thanks to the memories of the 1998 version that was, to put it mildly, bobbins. But these recent films? They proper nailed it, so when a Vietnam era Kong film turned up next on the list? Sure, let’s go! And it’s great! Hiddleston is great, Samuel L Jackson goes all in and Kong makes for a great addition to the series. Love it!

I mean, Godzilla Minus One is still like The Best Film Ever, but these are all good as well.

I’m flagging these for the Guide but it’s not exactly the 5 star classics we’ve had earlier in the day. They are decent films, mostly. Alright, the last one is pants but the other 2 are decent; Clash is a remake we never really needed but at least it gave us Liam Neeson as Zeus so that’s one thing. Heartbreak is a Clint Eastwood film through and through, full of melodrama and male toughness. It’s a fairly straightforward but decent war film elevated by a game cast.

And Speed 2? That’s just pants

It was proper sad to hear about the death of Si King, one half of The Hairy Bikers. Their shows over the years were great fuelled by the chemistry with his pal Dave. This will hopefully be a good celebration of that relationship, I expect without a dry eye in the house

Worth showing to any young person just to show them what the internet looked like in the mid 90s. Honestly it’s just mad, especially the work that went into making it look like the net could actually do half of what it does in the film

A nice Predator double bill here; I’ve still not got around to watching Prey but pretty much everyone says it’s a good time. And then we have the original, a film full of the most manly men getting ripped to shreds by one very ugly alien. A fun time and no mistake! And then what better way to follow it than with an Al Pacino crime film, right? It is a good one, cracking leather jacket action in it as well

This will be an interesting watch: The War Games is a fairly important early Doctor Who serial seeing as it introduces The Time Lords as well as the Second Doctor’s Regeneration. It’s 10 episodes knocked down into essentially a 90 minute film, which will hopefully survive the colourisation process without looking too colourised, if you get my drift. And why not follow it up with a spooky ghost story?

Now, I enjoyed Bullet Train; it’s a bit like Lucky Number Slevin from earlier in the week in that it almost tries too hard. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is the best thing in the film, specifically his moustache if we’re honest, but it’s not as bad as people make out. I’d also recommend the book, which also good. Then more Dad Action, this one with one of the best rocket launcher attacks in 90s cinema. Now there’s a list video I need to work on

Not seen this one, but always had a good time with the trailers. The second one was a particular favourite, “my only regret is that I only get to kill you once” is just chef’s kiss. So when the trailers are that good, what if the film isn’t? I’ve been suckered in enough times by the Michael Bay Transformers films, maybe it’s better to let it lie? Or maybe I will watch the film this year and find out. Or maybe not.

And so we end the day on another absolute banger. This really is a proper spook fest, one that doesn’t really on big over top jump scares but really gets under the skin. Maybe one to record and watch in the daytime?