麻豆约拍

Christmas is a time of good will and good cheer, but some of Mark's favourite seasonal movies do not exactly fit that description. Here are eight films that he loves to watch around this time of the year - four are traditional yuletide treats, and the others are distinctly different manifestations of the Christmas spirit...

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A New York City cop finds himself in big trouble when he arrives in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve to visit his family and gets caught up in a siege. Bruce Willis was cast in the role of John McClane when Arnold Schwarzenegger turned it down, and became a huge movie star as a result. Thrilling action sequences, blackly humorous dialogue and a Class A villain in the shape of Alan Rickman combine to make this essential viewing - no matter how often you have seen it before.

The soundtrack includes snatches of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow sung by Vaughn Monroe. The most memorable tune however, is Christmas In Hollis by Run DMC - John McClane: “Haven’t you got any Christmas music?” Argyle: "This is Christmas music!"

Irving Berlin’s musical about a pair of song and dance men, and their seasonal romance with two sisters, is a potent mix of wisecracking repartee, superb dance numbers and unabashed sentiment. Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye have great chemistry as Wallace and Davis - ex-army buddies who decide to help out their former commanding officer (Dean Jagger), who is running a struggling ski hotel in Vermont.

Rosemary Clooney (George’s aunt) and Vera Ellen play the glamorous sibling singers. Crosby had originally sung the famous title tune in Holiday Inn in 1942, but the tearjerking Vistavision finale of this movie featuring the four principals is a perennial Christmas cracker. Look out for Crosby and Kaye miming to 'Sisters' to see genuine comic genius on display.

Bill Forsyth made That Sinking Feeling, Gregory’s Girl and Local Hero - three of the finest British comedies of modern times. Comfort And Joy is far less well known, but in spite of its melancholy storyline, is still full of wonderful invention and quirky characters. It’s a few days before Christmas when DJ Alan ‘Dicky’ Bird discovers his girlfriend has left him. Feeling bereft he follows Clare Grogan's ice cream van, only to find himself caught up in a turf war between rival Italian vendors, which leads him into a series of strange misadventures.

Comfort and Joy takes its title, of course, from the words of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and the soulful soundtrack to this underrated and bitter sweet affair is by Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler, who had created such an integral score for Forsyth’s Local Hero.

"Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings." So says George Bailey’s daughter Zuzu at the conclusion of this reworking of A Christmas Carol, as we hear a heart-tugging rendition of Auld Lang Syne. James Stewart’s harassed hero is driven to thoughts of suicide when his small town business is about to go under. He is saved by Clarence - a seemingly inept guardian angel who shows him what the world would have been like had he never been born.

Frank Capra’s evergreen comedy attracted the attention of the FBI at the time it was made - they believed the movie had a communist message, as it "attempted to show that the people who had money were mean and despicable characters." It’s A Wonderful Life was a financial flop when it was released, but became one of America's most beloved films when, due to a lapse in copyright, it was repeatedly aired on TV in the 1970s.

This Finnish fantasy horror thriller, about a British research team who discover the weird figure of a wizened old man hidden inside a burial mound in Lapland, is one of cinema's stranger seasonal offerings. Can it really be that they have found a rather sinister Santa Claus? The creature they disinter turns out to be protected by a number of mysterious aggressive elf-like entities, who must be tamed or battled with.

Rare Exports is a genuine oddity - described by critic Roger Ebert as "A rather brilliant lump of coal for your stocking. An R-rated Santa Claus origin story crossed with The Thing." This peculiar splicing brings together mordant Scandanavian humour with nicely observed satire to create a splendidly twisted Christmas morality tale.

Charles Dickens' 1843 novella has been adapted many times for the cinema and TV - this ebullient musical version casts Michael Caine as the hard-hearted miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is haunted by a succession of spirits on Christmas Eve. Caine acquits himself well in the role alongside Kermit The Frog as Bob Cratchit, Miss Piggy as his wife Emily and Statler and Waldorf as the ghostly Marleys.

Caine said in advance of production that: "I'm going to play this movie like I’m working with the Royal Shakespeare Company. I will never wink, I will never do anything Muppety. I am going to play Scrooge as if it is an utterly dramatic role and there are no puppets around me." Thanks to the Muppets there are plenty of chuckles along the way, and some catchy Christmassy songs by Paul Williams. Look out for a shopfront featuring the name Micklewhites - Caine’s actual surname.

This recent film documents the raucous exploits of two transgender sex-workers - Sin-Dee and Alexandra - on Christmas Eve in Hollywood. When Sin-Dee learns that her pimp (and boyfriend) Chester has been cheating on her, she sets out to find him and put things right. Sean Baker’s vibrant feature was, incredibly, shot on an iPhone 5, but looks a million dollars and manages to find beauty in the strangest places. The soundtrack features fragments of Christmas tunes throughout, along with loud bursts of trap music, punctuating the action to great effect.

Baker's latest film - The Florida Project - is also set on the margins of society, and has been getting rave reviews.

A remake of the 1947 classic, this charming update produced by 麻豆约拍 Alone director John Hughes stars Richard Attenborough at his most twinkly as Kris Kringle - a department store Santa who may or may not be the real deal. The supporting roles are played by Elizabeth Perkins and Dylan McDermott as the pair who get caught up in a case to prove that Father Christmas actually exists. A modest hit at the time, the film lost out at the box office to noisy comedy The Santa Clause starring Tim Allen. The soundtrack includes a host of seasonal standards by the likes of Natalie Cole, Dionne Warwick, Ray Charles and Elvis Presley.