Ho... Ho... Ho. It's finally happening: the end of the semester. If you're like me, then you're in a dead sprint toward the finish line, doing as little as possible while not trying at all to combat senioritis. Is it wrong that the way I measure productivity through the years is in the number of films I've seen and stories I've written? Homework has very little to do with how accomplished I feel at the end of the day, which is why I'm so stoked about winter vacation.
Winter vacation should be a time spent prowling through video stores, searching for the titles yet to be consumed. Like a cinematic binge. The way I like to kick-start one of these is to find a genre or phase to pull through with as high a success rate as possible. Mob movies. Nineties romcoms. Films starring Christopher Walken. Heist movies. Westerns. Hitchcock. These are all great places to go when you have nothing better to do on a Tuesday morning after Christmas—when everybody's at work or school but you, the college kid with a lot of useless time on your hands. We've all seen mob movies and Christopher Walken movies, but unless you're Roger Ebert, nobody has seen them all. Also, some would be surprised to find out how many movies have a honey pot trap. There are enough to create whole subgenres, and something about that makes me very happy.
A good place to start this season is with movies that take place during Christmas but aren't really about Christmas. ""Love Actually,"" ""Catch Me if You Can"" and ""It's a Wonderful Life"" are all great choices. Also, the Harry Potter movies strike a certain holiday bell, as do ""Die Hard,"" ""Lethal Weapon,"" ""The Family Man"" and ""Home Alone."" However, I'm all about the hardcore Christmas movies—""National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation,"" ""A Christmas Story,"" ""The Polar Express,"" ""A Muppet Christmas Carol"" and ""Scrooged."" Who doesn't love a great Christmas movie? There are some, like ""It's a Wonderful Life,"" that have life-changing capacity, and then there are those that highlight Arnold Schwarzenegger chasing Sinbad in a big robot suit. Ah-nold movies from the '80s—that's another subgenre to be tackled. I'm going to go ahead and skip this one, but I'll never forget ""Kindergarten Cop.""
There are also some great movies coming out in the theaters this season. If you're a sci-fi nerd like me, then you're uber-enthusiastic about the Dec. 15 release of ""Eragon."" ""The Pursuit of Happyness"" is another one that has received a lot of hype. Also, say what you will, but I am looking forward to ""The Holiday"" this weekend. I know, I know. It's Cameron Diaz and Jack Black. And, Jude Law hasn't made a decent movie since ""Closer."" But come on. What are the holidays for if not to make us laugh? I never understood giant, epic movies with holiday release dates, like ""Gangs of New York"" or ""The Aviator."" Who, on Christmas day, goes out with the deep, admiring intention to become emotionally involved with a movie about death or insanity? I know we're heading toward Oscar season, but I think it's been established that the Academy is boring and usually to blame when a great film or performance is overlooked. On that note, have a safe and film-tastic holiday. See you in January!
