The Top 5 Christmas Scenes From Movies

With Christmas coming up, there are plenty of great movies out there that can really boost your festive spirit! Many of us struggle to get into the mood as we get older, but some of the old classics is all it can take to bring back that Christmas nostalgia! We have watched them all of our lives but here are some of the best Christmas scenes from Hollywood!

With so many choices out there though, from Home Alone to The Muppets, there is a litany of choices out there that make everyone's Christmas that little bit more enjoyable - but what is your favorite?

We have taken a long time to create a list of the five most enjoyable Christmas films out there, and if you never have seen any of these then shame on you!

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Weighing in at number five, this Tim Burton classic is the film that arguably made Burton the name he is today. Directed by Henry Selick, this classic is all about the lovely people of Halloween who try and take over the festive holiday. This tends to be everybody's first choice for the first Christmas movie they watch.

Whether that is because it is so far removed from the Festive tradition or because it Is one of the most diverse Christmas films, we aren't so sure. The biggest Christmas moment in the film, though, has to be the "What's this?" moment when all of the usual Christmas clichés explode into life.

Gremlins

Shading ahead of its sequel, the first Gremlins was one of the most enjoyable films of its era, never mind Christmas specific! In this film, a small Mogwai by the name of Gizmo is taken in by the protagonists. Gizmo is simply the cutest thing ever created - but it has one problem, if it eats after midnight, BAD stuff happens.

Set in your postcard Festive town, the Gremlins run riot and it takes some ingenious plot twists to stop them - a genuine classic. If you have never seen Gremlins then you simply have to keep an eye out for it on the TV channels between now and Christmas!

Elf

Released in 2003, this more modern Christmas Classic made Will Ferrell who he is today. Raised as one of Santa's elves, his sheer daftness makes the film a comedy classic while finding time for all of the Christmas traditions we love so much.

The moment where the fantastic Zooey Deschanel leads the whole of New York in an uplifting rendition of 'Santa Claus is Coming To Town' has to be up there with the most festive moments in film!

Die Hard

Okay, so you've replaced Santa with Bruce Willis as a takes-no-nonsense cop and the Elves with a series of Balkan hitmen, but Die Hard is a true Christmas classic. This is one of the most well-known films in the world, if you have never seen the film that turned Bruce Willis into the megastar he is today, then you really need to have a look at yourself!

It's A Wonderful Life

This 1946 classic is one of the most genuinely happy films you will ever watch. This fable takes in a slightly more serious backstory than you would think, when a suicidal man is saved only by the miracles of life itself. Whatever your age, this film is a defining moment in your movie life and if you have never taken the time to see it, you need to fix that now.

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Giving Classic Big Apple Movies Another Chance

After a viewing whether in the cinema or on cable TV we always emboss our opinion on the movie. Frequently this opinion is indelible particularly if it's either terrible or terrific. Yet every once in a while a particular film resurrects itself in our subconscious and compels us to give it another chance at redemption. This occurs when our lives change, when we mature, when we have more life experience, and when we're more empathetic.

Personally this occurred with three films: Midnight Cowboy (1969), Annie Hall (1977) and The King of New York (1990). In each case in my first viewing I thought they were horrific and boring. All three films are NYC focused yet initially even as a native New Yorker I had a tough time understanding the characters, their roles and their purpose. After subsequent viewings, thanks to the magic of cable and DVD services, they're all on my highly recommended viewing list

Midnight Cowboy starred Jon Voight as a cowboy who travels to NYC with the delusional mindset that rich ladies will throw themselves at him and that he'll live the easy life as a gigolo. The brutal reality is quite different and he ends up trolling the subculture of eccentric, starving artists far below the social station he desired. Even in the 21st century it's déjà vu as armies of young people flock to NYC for "fame & fortune" in finance, high-tech, or the creative fields most of whom experience the crushing rejection and sometimes end up decamping the Big Apple like Jon Voight's character decades earlier.

Upon first viewing I thought that the comedy Annie Hall was ridiculously silly and the characters played by Woody Allen and Diane Keaton were downright idiotic. During my acquisition of life experience not only did I understand better, but I was imperceptibly unknowingly becoming the Woody Allen character with his mindset in my relationships. And when you're in a relationship, the surrounding environment isn't as ugly as you think it is. The movie's release in 1977 was during a time that The Bronx was burning and NYC was just another apocalyptic American urban jungle. Notwithstanding, the film focused on their comic and quirky relationship and almost nothing on the urban dangers.

Finally the gangster flick The King of New York. In my initial viewing I was confused as to why the recently released gangster Frank White, played with gusto by Christopher Walken, returned to a life of crime risking everything. This criminal's insatiable greed parallels those white-collar criminals in designer business suits working on Wall Street who continue to push the envelope even when they can see the edge of the cliff. Frank White's mini-lecture to a detective (Victor Argo) on the government's hypocritical war on drugs rings true today similar to the bankers' complaint to government about additional oversight regulations.

The films never changed. I did. I've seen each of these films several times over the course of many years and with additional life experience appreciate the messages that they conveyed like layers being peeled away. After my first viewing I was clueless. After the second viewing I got a better understanding and what the director wanted to say but it was still unappealing. The third time I secured the emotional understanding and sympathy. And by the final viewing, I developed a bond with the characters.

Copyright Indo-Brazilian Associates LLC 2014. All rights reserved.

Indo-Brazilian Associates LLC is a NYC-based global advisory service and think tank with connections at the highest levels. We provide you the tools to successfully negotiate cross-culturally in your global business endeavors. Tell us about your challenges. We'll get on the "Short List".

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Western Movies And Its Appeal

Some people love to watch movies of the Western genre, but most people don't. Well, I'm a Western-addict. I love to watch even a rotten Western film which has been rated 1 or 2 on the scale of 5. And I'm not the only guy, there are many others like me. So, what is that which attracts us to Western genre? Before explaining it further, I would like to tell something about myself: I'm an Indian guy. No, no, I didn't mean by Native Indian, but a citizen of India, a South Asian country of the Indian subcontinent. There are a few certain things in the Western movies which attract me and many others who don't even belong to the American Southwest or the North Mexico or even to any Western European country. I started thinking about the attributes which got me addicted.

Good Old Days: It's quite poetic to say that the old days are always beautiful; of course, not to mention the old memories. While watching those Western movies I noticed that keeping a gun was as good as keeping a mobile phone these days. Those were the old days without mobile phones, telephones, computers or even sophisticated motor vehicles. Those old days were quite simple: you earned what you worked, you waited long for any communication, you rode horses and mules, and no other cutthroat competitions. And surprisingly, the dry and hot weather of the West contributed to the attributions. There was no sign of the corporate world where most of us find ourselves being suffocated. I would definitely like to go back to that Lantern Era, the peaceful Lantern Era.

Nature, Wilderness and Peace: I have never been to those places, but I think that I'd love to spend a few days in the Mexican desert than in the valleys of beautiful Switzerland. It might be my peculiar personality that I love the wilderness of the West. Sometimes I think about the horse riding; it must be a wonderful experience as horses have got their own conscience and they won't fall down or stumble if you don't control them. In a few movies I've noticed a very different kind of silence - somewhat fearsome. I hear no sound coming out of any electrical devices..no bulb light, etc. All I hear is a creaking cicada or a cricket, a fox barking far away; all I see is a timid flame of a lantern.

Music: Ennio Morricone's music gave an identity to the Western cinema. Or, we can also say that Western movies are specially recognized by Ennio Morricone's music. The music is very queer, very sweet and sometimes very haunting in its nature. How one cannot recognize the phenomenal and extraordinary music of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly? The harmonica music from Once Upon a Time in the West is still my mobile ringtone. Speeding trains and their creaking horns are quite mesmerizing sound-effects in these movies. Well, if you ask my opinion, I will tell you that the silence is the greatest music Western movies represent.

Impressive dialogues and language: They are quite short, straight and effective. The characters don't 'sing' the their dialogues as we see in most of non-Western movies. These movies are the great place for anyone to chance upon the old language, slang, lingo and the jargon of the West.

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THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING - A New Film Report

What a marvelous film! It holds everything that in my mind makes a film great. It tells a story which could be of the ages:

Imagine a brilliant young man- having the glory of a cosmological inquisitive mind and the great privilege of being educated in one of the world's great institutions of learning-at Cambridge- and finding himself in love with a young female student who is in love with him -- and getting ready to embark on a stellar career... suddenly finding that his future may well be sealed by a cruel Motor Neuron Disease that the doctors predict will end his life within two years. Who of us would have the stuff to turn that fate into one of the great triumphs of love and genius?

Well, in this film we see how that could come to pass. We watch Eddie Redmayne (in the role of Stephen Hawking) adapt himself to a disease that most cannot survive: he goes from stumbling:... to balancing on one cane... to acquiring the aid of two... to then worsening to a motorized wheel chair... until he has-- on top of all- a speech synthesizer, which allows him-as few could ever find the strength to do- to write popular tomes and speak to the masses on his findings regarding his long sought ambition to set forth The Theory of Everything in The Universe.

There's no question in my mind that-- as I watched the navigations of the actor, Eddie Redmayne-- I was truly witnessing how Stephen Hawking was doing it. But without the love and almost superhuman dedication of his wife to Hawking's welfare, he scarcely would have succeeded. You can feel her love and courage throughout every scene in this beautiful film. In real life she is Jane Hawking- played by Felicity Jones. Her role's fulfilled with a truthfulness that makes films work.

Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne are made for each other as this film rolls. Even as I drove on the road after leaving the theater, I could still sense the emotion I had felt as I viewed their roles. There is so much to think about: Watching someone with Lou Gehrig's Disease flourish with the marriage these two achieve- along with the three kids that they're able to bear--- and watching, too, the harsh pressure that Jane Hawking endures -- as she focuses on her family and the career, which she wished to pursue... and how all of that turns out... is something that leaves one with immense admiration for both of these actors-- as well as the director and the screen writer who made this movie come to life.

James Marsh, as the director, forms each scene in a conscious desire to make the plot evolve in a tasteful manner- even though the lives of these two people do not flow as ready-made fairy tale. The writer, Anthony McCarten, took the words of the real Jane Hawking's memoirs, and created a tale that gives us the essence of the romance and stark challenge that their lives must have borne. Others helped them greatly. David Thewlis, who plays Dennis Sciamo, the professor, who's helpful as his doctoral advisor and later calls himself Hawking's good friend, does solid work. It is quite touching to see him rejoicing as Hawking goes from Cambridge hero to international cosmos celebrity. Charlie Cox, who plays the choir master and organist- who's grieving his own loss-generously becomes part of the Hawking family and then later becomes more than a friend to Jane Hawking. Even though friends fear what seems to be taking place, the denouement is handled well.

There is a majesty about the filming that presents the lives and events of these folks with a background that is never tawdry. Credit for this achievement goes to Benoist Delhomme, the cinematographer. I seemed to feel the presence of the music score off and on, which-- to my mind-- made it a welcome warm inclusion. Johann Johannson gets a lot of praise for this.

Later on-for Hawking's day care-- a new attendant, played by Maxine Peake-in the role of Elaine Mason-- takes charge. Her fresh attentiveness and devotion to Steve Hawking becomes a welcome and then challenging sequel to the Hawking's marriage. But, here, again, I didn't feel it was handled other than as part of a new sympathetic development.

... But why the title, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING? Could it be that-really... over and above the unique cosmological work that Hawking did-- there was the truth that love and courage in the face of a cruel fate is really what all things human are really built upon. Would it really change a jot or tittle of our beings if what Steve found IS the theory of everything? Do any of men act or live differently since it was found that the earth is no longer the center of the Universe? Will human nature ever improve----regardless of genius involved-- with mathematical knowledge and great insights? Nevertheless, with a movie like this we see that the real "everything" is that EMOTION WINS. And that is the very thing that gives us the experiences that we go to the movies for.

Here, also, you might want to see a film that will surely get some Academy Award recognition. Based on my own ranking determinance, it gets an EIGHT.

What My Grade Grants:

8.) "About as good as it could get."

7.) "Lacking that bit of excellence."

6.) "Somehow it just didn't work well."

5.) "I have to feel bad about it."

4.) "All that work and nothing to show."

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