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  • Hi, everybody.

  • Welcome back to English topics.

  • My name is Alicia, and today I'm joined again by I'm Davy.

  • Welcome back, Davey.

  • So today we're going to be talking about famous American Christmas movies.

  • We have both prepared three movies that maybe had some kind of special significance to us around the holiday season.

  • Our Christmas in particular.

  • So let us introduce a few.

  • Davey, do you want to start?

  • Sure.

  • Uh, this is the 1st 1 that jumped to my mind.

  • So I'm sharing it.

  • First home alone.

  • Classic Christmas movie.

  • I remember going to see this in the theater with my mom when I was when I was a little kid.

  • Yeah, so that maybe ages me a little bit.

  • It's a great movie.

  • Kevin gets stuck home alone in Chicago, I believe.

  • As this family goes off toe to spend Christmas in Paris on, he has to fend off some wacky criminals.

  • Right and home alone.

  • There were there were, what, two or three Sequels to home alone.

  • I think there was a least one like.

  • Wouldn't you find that a bit suspicious about that family?

  • If that child continued to be left home alone year after?

  • Yes, and the same criminals came back year after year.

  • Yes, some of them have to change.

  • Actually, I think in the 2nd 1 it's still Kevin.

  • And then I think they switched to a different kid for a different movie.

  • I see.

  • I don't know.

  • I don't remember right.

  • And the only reason I think that that's considered a Christmas movies because that's the time of year at which the movie takes place.

  • I must disagree with you there.

  • OK, there is a strong Christmas message.

  • It is.

  • Yes, Kevin is home alone at the beginning of the movie.

  • He's motivated because he's so, uh, dissatisfied with his family life.

  • He's really angered, angry at his siblings and his parents, and he wishes that they would leave and they leave and he stuck home alone first.

  • He loves it, and he puts on his dad's aftershave.

  • So I get the home alone face.

  • I remember that and, uh, you know, hanging out.

  • Then the criminals come and he realized this.

  • He misses his family and he needs them.

  • And he finds Christmas solace through an old man that lives down the street.

  • Uh, heartwarming tale indeed.

  • Action as well?

  • Yes.

  • As zany zany antics.

  • Yep.

  • Just like Christmas, Right?

  • Every Christmas is like that.

  • Always, always throwing refrigerators.

  • That criminals.

  • That's right.

  • Right?

  • Right.

  • Cans indeed.

  • Blowtorches, right?

  • Yeah.

  • The traditional festivities.

  • Heavy was pretty cruel for, actually.

  • Yeah.

  • I don't remember being that creative or evil when I was that little true.

  • A lot of things going on that would be we could analyse, but let us move on.

  • Okay.

  • Okay.

  • So I'll go on to the first movie that I have on my list.

  • The 1st 1 that I have a shelf Elvis fairly recent compared to a movie like Home alone.

  • Home alone was made in what?

  • The early nineties?

  • That's right.

  • Something like that.

  • Health was made What, like the early two thousands or so Elf?

  • Is Elvis quite a new, comparatively new Christmas movie, actually, but the story is Will Ferrell plays an elf.

  • So elves are, um in may be American Christmas Lauren Christmas stories.

  • Elves are the people who help Santa Santa clause in his workshop to create toys for Children and elves Onley stay in that workshop.

  • They lived there in the North Pole with Santa.

  • But in the story of else, one of these elves leaves the North Pole in an effort to find his father because he's he's raised different from his fellow elves because he is much bigger.

  • So he's played by Will Ferrell.

  • It's a comedy, but it's also kind of a sweet story of a a person who is different trying to find acceptance in a world that doesn't really appreciate people who are different.

  • So there are a lot of kind of nice messages in this story, and it's comedy as well.

  • So, like, there are a lot of really funny moments, but they're also kind of like some really sweet moments as well.

  • They're singing in it, which is very nice.

  • There's actually very nice singing, and I don't even usually like singing, but that's quite good.

  • Yeah, I know that song leaves That is the that is a very questionable Christmas song.

  • I will say that it was very troubling Christmas song, the one that I thing, their consent is cool, this cool.

  • I'll just say that baby, it's cold outside is the least agreeable.

  • Well, perhaps Christmas Carol, but anyway, that's a different topic.

  • So else.

  • Yeah, health is a very popular and rather cheery pleasant movie.

  • I watched that Christmas movie every year.

  • Really?

  • Every Christmas I want some.

  • Are you the kind of person who watches Christmas movies every year?

  • Um, well, I guess Yes, yes, because I watched that almost every almost every year, almost every year.

  • I don't remember every year.

  • What is it that makes you want to watch the same movie at the same time every year?

  • I'm not that honest guy.

  • One one kind of movie that I will watch again and again is a comedy.

  • I will watch comedies over and over and over again.

  • I'll always laugh of the same jokes.

  • I like waiting for the jokes, knowing they're coming, and I love LF it's a very funny movie and I remember that that movie exists when Christmas is coming around.

  • Eso more, more like it just reminds me to watch Elf.

  • Okay, so it's not that I think Christmas time I have to watch out.

  • It's more like Christmas Reminds me to watch.

  • I see it's very funny.

  • It is good.

  • Okay, Nice.

  • What's your next one?

  • The next one is another one.

  • I watch almost every year.

  • High heart.

  • A lot of people might argue that Die Hard is not a Christmas movie.

  • I think that it iss on.

  • Perhaps maybe this is one that you could say is becomes a Christmas movie by default.

  • But again, John McClane didn't have to go down to the building to the Christmas party.

  • But he did.

  • He went down there to try and win back his ex wife because he was struck by the Christmas spirit.

  • And then he found himself in the middle of a terrorist plot and had to fight his way out.

  • Happens to me all the time.

  • Yeah.

  • Happens to you too, I'm sure.

  • From you know, from time to time, everyone again, whatever your thing, right, Right.

  • You just get swept up in a terrorist plot and then have to fight your way out.

  • Holiday season.

  • Tired old tale.

  • Yep.

  • Yep, for sure, Sure.

  • But yes, that is a hotly contested, hotly contested means many people discuss and debate about it.

  • That's a hotly contested movie in terms of whether or not it is.

  • It is in fact, a Christmas movie.

  • That's true.

  • Um, but it seems that the majority consensus most people believe well, some people I should say do believe firmly.

  • The diehard is a Christmas movies.

  • Well, you should watch it and make a decision for yourself.

  • That's true.

  • That's true.

  • Nice.

  • Okay, I'm gonna go to one which you guys actually pointed out to me of for I guess I'll just introduce the name of it.

  • First.

  • The movie is called The Santa Clause of this came out when I was in elementary school.

  • I don't remember the Santa Claus, but this I did not realize it until, like a few minutes ago.

  • Usually Santa Claus, the person like in all of our Christmas stories, the guy who brings presence in his red coat and red pants and all that, Um, we spell his name without in Without an IV.

  • But in this story Ah, the main character is played by Tim Allen, who was a very popular actor kind of comedic actor in the nineties in the USA.

  • And in this story, Tim Allen accidentally kills Santa Claus as Santa is delivering presents on Christmas.

  • And so clause here refers to like a condition, like a condition in a contractor part of a contract, something that indicates future necessary behavior in this case.

  • So in this, I'm over complicating it.

  • But because Tim Allen's character kills Santa Claus, the actual person there he by doing so, he begins.

  • He enters into a contract where, in he has to become Santa Claus.

  • The next Santa Claus said this.

  • The title of the film is actually a play on words.

  • It's some wordplay related to this, and I didn't realize that until just now.

  • I saw the movie as a child and I didn't realize the play on words at the time.

  • But now it's like, Oh, it's interesting.

  • There's kind of a double meaning in the title of this movie.

  • So yeah, so the movie is Tim Allen learning how to be Santa Claus and as he's going through all these changes and, like personality changes and physical changes, is well, yeah, yes, And this was when I saw it.

  • Maybe once or maybe once, I think when I was a kid, but there were just like some strong kind of funny visuals in it.

  • Like his hair, he would suddenly grow beard, or you would suddenly get, like, really fat like as he was becoming Santa in the movie.

  • So this was one that I remember from my childhood.

  • For some reason, what I don't remember either is whether or not the Santa Claus stipulates, if you have to become Santa as a result of murder or just accidental, uh, I don't know, is getting very dark.

  • It was manslaughter or homicide.

  • No, they don't stipulate.

  • Well, I believe that it was accidental in the movie.

  • So what happens if you really, really go for it?

  • I don't know.

  • I don't know.

  • Let's continue continue under another movie.

  • Okay?

  • All right.

  • My last movie I had to go for a classic is It's a Wonderful life.

  • I haven't seen this movie in a long time, but it's one of the maybe oldest Christmas movies I remember.

  • Not because it's just the oldest one of my list.

  • I think this movie from the fifties or sixties, but it's one I remember watching when I was very small watching at home my family, um, and it's just ah, really good classic Christmas movie.

  • Yeah, I think I've only seen it once.

  • A swell I saw it.

  • Maybe when I was a teenager, but the movie is called It's a Wonderful Life, but it is.

  • It is an emotional film that goes to many different places is too heavy movie.

  • Yeah, there's some Christmas themes for sure, for sure.

  • So, yeah, that's quite a that is absolutely, quite a classic, I think.

  • But, um, don't let the title fool you.

  • There are many.

  • There are many emotional roller coasters to ride in that film for sure.

  • OK, nice.

  • Um then often a shop, I guess with one that we sort of debated, I wasn't sure whether to include it, and we decided, Okay, I decided.

  • Okay, the movie is the nightmare.

  • Before Christmas, The nightmare before Christmas, I was hesitant to include this because I feel like it could be like a Halloween movie, but at the same time, it is sort of a Christmas movie.

  • So if you're familiar, this is a film by Tim Burton.

  • Um, it's sort of It's an animated film, but basically the characters in the movie the animated characters in the movie are from a place where Halloween is like the theme of their city.

  • Halloween.

  • Yeah, it's called Halloween Town, and one day one of the characters in Halloween town discovers this other places, other city like Christmas Town, like Where all of everything is themed around Christmas.

  • And he's so excited about it.

  • He wants to bring that back to Hiss Halloween City so he could.

  • He tries to recreate Christmas in his hometown essentially, and he creates kind of this very, very strange, like very dark, UM, interpretation of Christmas.

  • But again, he's trying to bring, like this Christie idea of Christmas spirit to his hometown in the in the best way that he can, and he kind of messes it up.

  • But the message there is just that he's he's trying to make his community a little bit happier to improve his community a little bit and kind of the struggles that he goes through to do that.

  • So that's a very interesting film as well.

  • There are a lot of layers to that.

  • It's true.

  • I think that that of the overall plot makes it more of more of a Christmas movie than a Halloween movie.

  • Yeah, I think so.

  • It's more of a Christmas message.

  • I think so, too.

  • And actually, while I was talking about that.

  • Have you seen the movie?

  • The Grinch?

  • The Grinch stole Christmas?

  • Uh, which one?

  • The old the old animated one or the well, Both.

  • That's true.

  • I don't think I've seen the Jim Carrey one.

  • Think I've seen that?

  • Yeah, I think I saw at one time, But it just occurred to me Now it's like, Oh, that's a classic story is a classic Christmas about this kind of mean old, essentially mean old man who was, like, tries to push everybody out and lives outside of town.

  • But around Christmas time, like the community tries to bring him in and show him like appreciation and care.

  • And eventually he, you know, warms up to them and tries toe kind of integrate into the community of it.

  • But that's another one.

  • That sort of into that same theme that maybe we've been talking about people coming together around Christmas time every year.

  • Mm huh.

  • Nice.

  • That's the Christmas message.

  • I think so.

  • I hope so.

  • Indeed.

  • Great.

  • So that's all I have talked up.

  • All right, so those are a few very famous, I think, American Christmas movies.

  • If you haven't seen them, you should check them out.

  • I think that there actually some pretty good references and cultural references, especially a movie like Die Hard.

  • Ah, that is a huge, hugely famous movie that lots of people reference, Um, and like member for Christmas as well.

  • I think it's also quite popular.

  • So is else maybe two.

  • But all of these really can give some interesting insights into American culture.

  • And I mean, you can practice your English to course, and and there are a lot of Christmas movies that we didn't get to talk about today.

  • So have a look around.

  • Explore, see what other Christmas movies that you can find?

  • Absolutely.

  • Yeah, so and if there any other Christmas movies, or if there are some famous holiday movies from your country that you enjoy and that you think are really famous or kind of represent holidays in your country, let us know in the comments section.

  • So thanks very much for watching this episode of English topics.

  • If you like the video, please make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already.

  • Also, you can check us out of English Class one a one dot com for more good stuff.

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