Battle of the Christmas Movies

[CaptainWagner]

Brush aside those dangling garlands, shake off that snow and step on in to the Most Wonderful Time of The Year!

Participating in the latest running of the Comic Book Movie Tournament gave me the idea to host a similar tournament, but for Christmas Movies. I've been running it for the past week on my social medias, but thought it would be fun, now that the CBM Tournament has wound down, to see what all of you think!

So yeah, the rules are fairly basic. Each day I'll post a new set of of match-ups and you comment with your votes for that round. You don't have to vote for every match-up, come and go as you see fit. I'll tally up the votes at the end of the day, announce the winners, and move on to the next set. If I time this right, we should have a champion to crown in time for Christmas Eve!

I assembled a 64-player line-up, with help from my friends & some Play-In rounds I don't have time to run here. But there's 4 Divisions: The "Grown-Up Holiday," the "Family Christmas," the "TV Specials," and the "Wild Cards" (You know, where Jack McClane and the Gremlins are hiding in the vents) So let me load up my sleigh with gifs, wait for the jingle-bell buzzer, and let's get voting!

(1) It's a Wonderful Life vs.

(16) Christmas With The Kranks

(2) Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer vs.

(15) The Flight Before Christmas

(1) A Christmas Story vs.

(16) The Christmas Chronicles

(2) The Nightmare Before Christmas vs.

(15) Black Christmas (2019)

For Clarification: So there's 4 match-ups, 1 from each of the divisions (Today - Wonderful Life vs. Kranks; Rudolph vs. Flight; Story vs. Chronicles; Nightmare vs. Black Christmas Remake) You can vote in all four match-ups or however many you see fit. If things seem too confusing, I'll try and find ways to better distinguish how to vote in the future.

 

[Broseph44]

It’s A Wonderful Life, Rudolph, Christmas Story, Nightmare Before Christmas.

 

[Filmfreak]

It's a Wonderful Life and The Nightmare Before Christmas. They are actually my #1 and #2 favourite Christmas films respectively.

 

[Mandon Knight]

Announcing Its a Wonderful Life as the winner already, cheers.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Easy. Always the first. Basically classic vs dreck.

 

[Fincher]

Christmas with the Kranks because I'm not a fan of It's a Wonderful Life (despite its reputation, I find it depressing) and Julie Gonzalo is hot.

The Nightmare Before Christmas, my favorite.

The others I can't vote on because I haven't seen both.

 

[Broseph44]

So wait I’m confused. Was I not supposed to vote for 4 right now? This is more confusing than the other movie thread.

 

[Luigi]

I'm assuming you can vote for 4. Still haven't seen Kranks, Black Xmas 2019 and Christmas Chronicles, so I can't vote for those matchups.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

1. It's A Wonderful Life
2. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
3. A Christmas Story
4. The Nightmare Before Christmas

 

[Batmannerism]

Okay, let's save some time here.....Die Hard wins !

The rest of this is the battle for 2nd place.

Merry Christmas everyone.

 

[Mandon Knight]

Christmas with the Kranks because I'm not a fan of It's a Wonderful Life (despite its reputation, I find it depressing)

Its meant to reflect a man's mental & personal downfall and then uplift in sense of personal view of one's worth to humanity, that's gonna be depressing along the way. You wouldn't expect a film with a suicide attempt to be a laugh riot in places. It's a glorious film of personal redemption.

 

[Fincher]

Its meant to reflect a man's mental & personal downfall and then uplift in sense of personal view of one's worth to humanity, that's gonna be depressing along the way. You wouldn't expect a film with a suicide attempt to be a laugh riot in places. It's a glorious film of personal redemption.

It never rises out of depressing to me.

 

[Mandon Knight]

It never rises out of depressing to me.

Sorry that's the case for you.

 

[Wheels]

Announcing Its a Wonderful Life as the winner already, cheers.

The GOAT.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

It never rises out of depressing to me.

But why exactly?

Cuz... It isn't subtle in the last reel.

Like... At all. It hits lows but then it goes sweet enough to cause diabetes and soars on the wings of decency, humanity and the always wonderful fantasy that just outcomes may take time but they do happen. It is a lesson of hope and of selflessness I mean... What about all that is either ineffective or does not register for you?

 

[Mandon Knight]

But why exactly?

Cuz... It isn't subtle in the last reel.

Like... At all. It hits lows but then it goes sweet enough to cause diabetes and soars on the wings of decency, humanity and the always wonderful fantasy that just outcomes may take time but they do happen. It is a lesson of hope and of selflessness I mean... What about all that is either ineffective or does not register for you?

Sweet stuff doesn't cause diabetes by the way.

 

[CaptainWagner]

So wait I’m confused. Was I not supposed to vote for 4 right now? This is more confusing than the other movie thread.

Yes, my apologies if it wasn't clear. I'm attempting to get this done by Christmas, so I have to have multiple match-ups each day. So yes, if you vote in each match-up, you'll have four votes total. But not everyone has seen all of the options, so a lot of votes are only in one or two.

If anyone has suggestions for how better to delineate the separate match-ups, let me know. Again, apologies for any confusion, this is my first rodeo.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

The GOAT.

It's the Stairway To Heaven of Christmas movies.

 

[Mandon Knight]

Yes, my apologies if it wasn't clear. I'm attempting to get this done by Christmas, so I have to have multiple match-ups each day. So yes, if you vote in each match-up, you'll have four votes total. But not everyone has seen all of the options, so a lot of votes are only in one or two.

If anyone has suggestions for how better to delineate the separate match-ups, let me know. Again, apologies for any confusion, this is my first rodeo.

Just announce Its a Wonderful Life as the winner and we can all eat our turkey.

 

[Fincher]

But why exactly?

Cuz... It isn't subtle in the last reel.

Like... At all. It hits lows but then it goes sweet enough to cause diabetes and soars on the wings of decency, humanity and the always wonderful fantasy that just outcomes may take time but they do happen. It is a lesson of hope and of selflessness I mean... What about all that is either ineffective or does not register for you?

George was disssatisfied with his life before the stuff with Mr. Potter because he wasn't doing what he wanted but rather what other people wanted. Then things go wrong, and he doesn't think he's any good for them, either. Then he's shown an alternate reality where things are even worse because he's not there. Then in the last few minutes, it's the real world and the issue with Mr. Potter is fixed (but he's still not living the life he wanted to live). He's acting super cheerful in a way that's unconvincing, and that's supposed to undo the rest of the movie that's depressing, but it's only a few minutes and not as relatable and doesn't connect for me the way that the unhappy scenes do. Then on top of that it's in black-and-white, and low contrast black-and-white movies that are more shades of gray tend toward dreariness and need to work that much harder to be upbeat. So when it's all super smiley an angel gets its wings time I'm still stuck in the whirlpool of misery from the rest of the movie.

 

[Wheels]

It never rises out of depressing to me.

I understand that some people feel George Bailey is trapped by his community and his wife and kids. I hate that I guess because all I really want in life are the things George Bailey has. I understand the feeling though because George never did get to do anything he wanted to do. I know that's a hard pill to swallow.

Some just see the dark side and I get that. It certainly is bothersome to think about us never achieving our goals.

 

[Mandon Knight]

I understand that some people feel George Bailey is trapped by his community and his wife and kids. I hate that I guess because all I really want in life are the things George Bailey has. I understand the feeling though because George never did not get to do anything he wanted to do. I know that's a hard pill to swallow.

Some just see the dark side and I get that. It certainly is bothersome to think about us never achieving our goals.

I personally get huge value from it due to the route back from attempted suicide and finding one's purpose & self value having had to deal with those issues myself and now years later finding the love of ones life and building that aspect of life that many 'take for granted' as something that 'naturally comes our way'.

I've had to move mountains in one's own journey to get the 'final' scene in IAWL and so I find great purpose with it.

 

[SuperSpideyGirl]

It’s A Wonderful Life, Rudolph, A Christmas Story, and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

 

[LoganPool]

It's a Wonderful Life
Rudolph
A Christmas Story
Black Christmas

 

[CaptainWagner]

Awesome start! It's a Wonderful Life, Rudolph, Christmas Story and Nightmare all advance! I apologize again for any confusion in the first round, I'll try to delineate each matchup better this time.

(8) A Christmas Carol (1984) vs.

(9) The Nativity Story
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(7) The Year Without a Santa Claus vs.

(10) Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas
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(8) Arthur Christmas vs.

(9) Klaus
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(7) The Star Wars Holiday Special vs.

(10) Anna and the Apocalypse