The Best Christmas Movies Not About Christmas

Merry Christmas, Wortmaniacs! If you’re like me, the holidays just aren’t complete without watching some classic Yuletide films. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, Home Alone, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Scrooged, Bad Santa and Elf are required yearly viewing as far as I’m concerned, but many of the best Christmas flicks out there aren’t directly related to the holiday at all. Grab a glass of eggnog and peruse this handy (and non-paginated) list of my favorite Christmas movies that aren’t technically Christmas movies.

5) Trading Places (1983)
John Landis’ Trading Places, the story of a commodities broker (Dan Aykroyd) and a homeless man (Eddie Murphy) switching lives as part of a bet/social experiment, is a film that always makes me nostalgic for a time when Eddie Murphy was one of the funniest comedians around. The film takes place from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, and might be the only time we’ll ever get to see a Santa suit-clad Dan Aykroyd eating salmon on a bus.

4) Rocky IV (1985)
Leave it to ol’ Sly Stallone to cram the Cold War, Kenny Loggins, and a robot that sings “Happy Birthday” into an uber-patriotic Christmas package that’s worth opening early. Although Christmas has been a part of the Rocky series from the beginning, this film pitted the titular Italian Stallion against Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) in Russia on Christmas Day. By defeating Drago and garnering respect from America’s enemies, Rocky Balboa taught us all how to love. And isn’t that what the holidays are all about? Guys? Hello?

3) Batman Returns (1992)
Between Lee Bermejo’s Batman: Noël, the Christmas setting of the Arkham Origins video game and just about everything in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns, The Dark Knight just might be a bigger Christmas icon than Frosty the Snowman. This 1992 sequel to Burton’s Batman kicks off with a villainous attack during a Gotham City tree-lighting and ends with The Penguin (Danny DeVito) hatching a twisted Christmas Eve plan to abduct and drown children. ‘Tis the season, amirite?

But most importantly, Batman Returns taught us one of the most important lessons of the season: No matter how delicious it looks, don’t eat mistletoe. It’ll probably kill you.

2) Die Hard (1988)
“Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho.” — John McClane

Office Christmas parties tend to get out of hand, but there’s usually a lot less shooting and explosions involved. John McTiernan’s classic Die Hard pits grizzled New York cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) against terrorists in a Los Angeles skyscraper on Christmas Eve. There’s little about the premise that screams “Santa,” but the film’s constant holiday allusions makes it a must-watch when the weather outside is frightful.

1) Gremlins (1984)
Christmas served as the backdrop for Joe Dante’s too-terrifying-for-children tale of a furry (and toyetic) holiday pet that spawns legions of mischievous monsters that terrorize a Norman Rockwell-esque small town. The chaos caused by these demonic green abominations is not all that dissimilar to what one might find at Target during the holidays, but at least no one in the film runs the risk of having their credit card information stolen. Zing!

‘Ghostbusters 3’ to Enter Production Within the Year?

In yet another vague update on the status of Ghostbusters 3, Dan Aykroyd recently told Metro that the film is indeed moving forward and that Bill Murray will not be involved at all.

“It’s sad but we're passing it on to a new generation,” Aykroyd said of Murray’s refusal to participate in a second Ghostbusters sequel. “Ghostbusters 3 can be a successful movie without Bill. My preference would be to have him involved but at this point he doesn’t seem to be coming and we have to move on. It’s time to make the third one.”

Says Aykroyd the film has a new screenwriter and could be in production “in the next year.”

Mr. Aykroyd, with all due respect, I’m NOT ready to believe you.

For the full story, click here.

Dan Aykroyd Says ‘Ghostbusters 3’ Will Happen With or Without Bill Murray

Mr. Dan Aykroyd, you’ve accomplished many things. You’ve been in some of the biggest comedies of all time—Caddyshack 2 notwithstanding—and you’ve used your celebrity to launch a pretty good brand of vodka with an aesthetically pleasing bottle. However, your fascination with making Ghostbusters 3 with or without the involvement of Peter Venkman himself, Bill Murray, is a bit troubling.

In a recent interview on The Dennis Miller Show, Aykroyd said that the plan is to start shooting next spring whether or not Murray finally agrees to participate.

“Yes, we will be doing the movie and hopefully with Mr. Murray,” the actor said. “That is our hope. We have an excellent script. What we have to remember is that Ghostbusters is bigger than any one component, although Billy was absolutely the lead and contributive to it in a massive way, as was the director and Harold [Ramis], myself and Sigourney [Weaver]. The concept is much larger than any individual role and the premise of Ghostbusters 3 is that we get to hand the equipment and the franchise down to new blood.”

You know, I’d love to be excited about this, Ghostbusters fanboy that I am. But come on. One of the reasons why the original Ghostbusters film worked so well was the fact that Peter didn’t really take the ghostbusting thing all that seriously. He counteracted the stoic nerdiness of Egon Spengler (Ramis) and the giddy exuberance of Ray Stanz (Aykroyd). You add in the blue-collar sensibilities of Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) and you have the perfect team dynamic. Without Peter, things would fall apart pretty quickly, and we’d end up with something a lot worse than Ghostbusters 2.

He went on to say that in the new movie, Ray will be blind in one eye and unable to drive the Ecto-1, while Egon will be too fat to strap on his proton pack. Hilarity will ensue, apparently.

“We need young blood and that’s the premise,” Aykroyd said. “We’re gonna hand it to a new generation.”

Aykroyd wants the new team to include three guys and a young woman. To listen to the whole interview, head over to DennisMillerRadio.com.

Dan Aykroyd Addresses 'Ghostbusters 3' Rumors

A third Ghostbusters movie is apparently still happening, even though all evidence (and common sense) seems to point to the contrary.

In an e-mail to horror website Bloody-Disgusting, a reader notes that Ghostbusters 3 producer/writer/star Dan Aykroyd said in a recent WGN Radio Chicago interview that casting for the film is underway, and that fresh faces such as Bill Hader, Anna Faris and Eliza Dushku are being considered. Aykroyd also confirmed Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver’s involvement as well as the production’s May 2011 start date.

But like all Ghostbusters 3 news, take this with a grain of salt. Or, more appropriately, an ounce of ectoplasm.