riffday: AB goes to the movies

So I let myself take off about half the day on Saturday, between papers.  Saturday night, the three of us were home, so we decided we would watch a movie.  I was trying to think of movies that have Christmas in them but aren't specifically Christmas movies-- we have a raft of those we watch every year, but we have to wait till Nell gets home next week (Rudolph, both versions of the Grinch, maybe A Christmas Story, White Christmas, Christmas Vacation, etc).

I'm considering going off on a tangent here about how we came to love the second Grinch movie just as much as the first after boycotting it to start.  But that's probably the whole story right there.

Anyway.  The ones I thought of were:  Hook, Home Alone, While You Were Sleeping, Die Hard.  and I'm putting It's a Wonderful Life in this category as well, even though everyone thinks of it as a Christmas movie.

We ended up with While You Were Sleeping, which I love with a great love.  It might be the only romantic comedy that I like, I'm too curmudgeonly for the rest of them.  We hadn't watched "Sleeping" for at least 3-4 years, so it was great.  I love the scene where Jack cuts the cards while Peter is in a coma, and Jack's goofy family, and "I'm really, really sorry about your carpet."

"Why didn't you say anything?"  "I didn't know how to tell you."  *sigh*

Tonight Dean and MadMax are watching Transformers 3, while I am supposed to be working on paper #2. (And I am.  Intermittently.)  It will probably destroy whatever shred of feminist credibility I had left to tell you that I kind of enjoyed the first Transformers movie.  The parents are hilarious, and if your kid grew up watching the Transformers cartoon, you already know all the characters.  But the second one was barely worth watching, and the third one is awful.

If you had asked me after Transformers 2, I would have told you that Megan Fox's role was the ultimate eye candy role-- there's even one scene where she's half naked draped over a motorcycle.  But that was before Transformers 3.  The blond, I don't even know what her name is and I don't care enough to look it up, doesn't even have any lines to speak of. *smirk*  She plays absolutely no part in the plot.  A new low for female sidekicks.  At least Megan could hotwire a truck and drive it through (what city is that?  Manhattan?) to save Bumblebee.  And the special effects are so non-stop that when someone actually has a line to speak, it sounds weird.

OK, I really should get in another hour or two of work before I go to bed.  The thing is, I have this feeling of false confidence at the moment because the outline came together much more easily than I was expecting it to today, so I've been cutting myself some slack this evening.  I will regret it later, oh, yes I will.

Oh, and Julie-- you remember when I told you in an e-mail that I was pretty much past using food as a reward??  HA.  that's all I have to say.  HA.  When I finished that paper yesterday and was proofing it, I ate about a dozen mini-Reese's.  I had to raid the stuff I've bought for the kids stockings because I try not to keep candy that I like in the house.

Now if Nell decides to make one of her rare visits here, she'll know that I buy her stocking stuffers and not Santa.  Dang.

Can you think of any other movies set at Christmas time that aren't about Christmas?