Amazon Blogs: Armchair Commentary Daily Digest

Check out these Updates from Armchair Commentary for December 23, 2009.

What's your holiday movie or TV tradition? December 23, 2009 One movie we always try to find time for during the holiday season is Eloise at Christmastime, a made-for-TV Disney movie about a precocious kid who lives at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Before that sets off your Suite Life of Zack and Cody alarm bells, Eloise at Christmastime is based on the book by Kay Thompson and has a great cast that includes Sofia Vassilieva in the title role, the ever-endearing Julie Andrews as Nanny, and Sara Topham and Gavin Creel as two of Eloise's friends that the 6-year-old tries to unite.  This scenario could be annoying or cloying or both, but the movie strikes a nice balance and delivers a good message.  There's a great musical number too. Of course there are many other movies and TV specials without which the holidays would not be the holidays.  Just a few of my favorites: A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!: Two absolute classics that I associate together for whatever reason.  How many decades have I been watching these? Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and The Little Drummer Boy: Three others that all seem like part of a whole, I guess because of their similar Rankin-Bass stop-motion style.  Frosty the Snowman is a different style of animation, but it belongs with this group as well It's a Wonderful Life: This one still gets me every time! Raymond Briggs' The Snowman: Sort of a refined British version of Frosty, it's an utterly charming special that's wordless except for the song "Walking in the Air," which is becoming a Christmas standard. Holiday Inn: I know a lot of people prefer White Christmas, but I like this black-and-white musical vehicle for Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire (WC was Bing's semi-remake years later). What do you have to watch every year?  A Christmas Story?  The Year Without a Santa Claus?  Miracle on 34th Street?  Christmas Vacation? The Santa Clause?  The list goes on... --David Trailer Park: "Sex and the City 2" December 23, 2009 Here's the trailer for Sex and the City 2 , the next movie based on the hit HBO series, opening in theaters May 28. --David read more

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