Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

I agree that it drags a bit once they get north, and the animation is a bit cold, but I quite enjoy it every couple years anyway.

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

I think the movie kind of falls apart once they get to the North Pole.

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

The Hallmark sale is live on Vudu and they also have a bunch of Lifetime movies available for $.99 each.

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

I've always felt the "animation" in Polar Express to be a bit creepy and just off-putting. It's on the edge of "not right" for me. The story is OK but just OK and really looses me once they get to the North Pole. With some judicious editing it'd have made a good 1 hour TV special.

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

Couldn't stand it... had to dig out that kids' movie box and check. Yep. I own a copy of that one myself. I purchased it for The Cat in the Hat and The Sneetches. IIRC it was less expensive to get that than those separately and had the other shorts as a bonus. I don't remember a single thing about those other shorts.

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

Polar Express has always left me a bit cold (pun not intended), and the 3-D porn sequences are not that great. The music is the best part,

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

lol! I've had that happen to me too...know you have something but just can't give up until you find it! The Sneetches I remember watching in school as a kid and when I found a copy of it with a bunch of other Seuss stories, had to pick it up.

The Polar Express...I actually only watched this several years after it was first released. It looked odd from the beginning and didn't seem like something I'd enjoy. I ended up blind buying it at Big Lots, I think, very inexpensively. The first time I watched it, I wasn't thrilled. The animation style is a little too realistic to the point it looks fake, if that makes sense. I'm not sure how to put it, but it didn't really impress me. A couple years later, I gave it another shot and started to enjoy it a lot more. The story itself is a good one and it has just enough action and emotion to draw you in. But, you're right, the scenes at the North Pole slow the whole thing down and kind of knock you out of the story a bit. Still, I watch the film about every other Christmas or so. Not a favorite, but still enjoyable for a re-watch.

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

I'm watching Invasion USA tonight. It falls under the category of having nothing to do with Christmas but is set during the Holiday Season.

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

can I include 'The Daytrippers' since it happens just after Thanksgiving and is happening in NYC in the early Christmas season?

I was surprised how very little of the new 'How to Train Your Dragon' holiday movie had really nothing to do with Christmas, barely - what a touching epilogue to the last movie.

are there wild cards for non-movie/video seasonal activities?

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

You can include Daytrippers Giles. And while I hadn’t thought about it, I’ll allow three wild cards for seasonal activities.

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

The three wildcard rule has been a part of the challenge since I suggested it several years ago.

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

I just finished my first wild card. I use this one every year for ‘My Life As A Turkey’. It’s an episode of Nature about a man who imprints himself on a brood of wild turkeys.

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

Biggest surprise for me is my first-time viewing of The Muppet Christmas Carol. I never watched it because, I mean, it's a Muppet movie. But it was actually better than a lot of the other versions I've watched. It may actually be my favorite one. Biggest surprise for me so far...

That, and I've become an Ed Asner fan...this guy plays Santa Claus more than anyone I've ever seen.

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

Well I decided on a blind buy of Santa with Muscles on bluray. It was $8.79 off of Walmart's website. I should have it by Friday.

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

I've been mainly watching Food Network holiday baking shows, but have managed to fit in a few Hallmark movies. I enjoyed Christmas Town with Candace Cameron Bure. She's a teacher who is moving via train to her new position and ends up in a very Christmasy town.

I've also just finished watching Christmas in Rome with Lacey Chabert. It was a cute, very typical Christmas romance taking place in Rome.

I do feel like commercials are really getting out of hand. I've spent more time getting through them then actually watching the movie!

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

If anyone hasn't seen Klaus yet, I highly recommend watching it. That was such a great movie.

https://www.netflix.com/title/80183187

Between this and last year's Christmas Chronicles, Netflix is becoming the king of Christmas movies. Hallmark Channel might have more movies, but Netflix is making some holiday films that'll become classics.

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

My biggest weak spot (movies that I've never watched) is in this area. I'm trying to sprinkle a few of the Hallmark/Lifetime variety in with the main classics and other stuff I've never seen. Apparently, I've missed A LOT of Christmas movies over the years. Until this year, I just never got into them outside of the normal ones, but I'm enjoying catching up. There's been a few bad Hallmark ones, but I liked the couple of Alicia Witt ones I've seen and am enjoying the Christmas in Evergreen trilogy so far. But, it looks like I have a lot of Candace Cameron-Bure, Danica McKellar, and Lacey Chabert in my future as I sort through them. I like the actresses, but I wish they'd cast better male leads. For anyone who's never seen The Christmas Shoes with Rob Lowe and Kimberly WIlliams-Paisley, I highly recommend it and the two sequels, but definitely the first one. It's an older Lifetime trilogy from the early 2000's.

Mainstream, I enjoyed Christmas with the Kranks a lot more than I thought. It isn't very highly rated or talked about, but it was solid. Not a classic, but a solid movie. Same, to a lesser extent, for Surviving Christmas with Ben Affleck and Christina Applegate.

I'm planning on watching that before the end of the month. The Christmas Chronicles, I actually enjoyed more the second time than I did the first.

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

Several years ago, the amount of movies was pretty easy to keep up with...only one or two new ones were being made each year and then all of a sudden it became a thing to make sappy Christmas movies. At that point, the quality of the actors did pick up, but I agree, outside of a handful of male actors, the leads are usually there to be pretty and the women lead the movie. Kind of the opposite of most movies, just wish it wasn't only in romantic holiday films!

I am almost positive I watched the first Evergreen movie a year or two ago, but I have one of the sequels on my DVR to watch next. I'll have to go and find the one I'm missing in a bit.

If you're a fan of Grumpy Cat, they made a movie using the cat that's not that bad...

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

One of my favorite series is The Incredible Dr. Pol. And there happens to be quite a few holiday episodes of that show. I just watched the first one that was made, ‘Jingle Pols’, on Disney +.

I haven’t gotten around to watching it yet LJG, but I’ve got the Grumpy Cat Christmas movie on my iPhone.

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

Colin Ferguson and Patrick Muldoon are the only two I've seen popping up in these Hallmark/Lifetime movies that I recognize. Both of them I've seen over the years in various things, but other than those two and Dean Cain, I haven't recognized many of the actors from anything.

I actually liked the second Evergreen better than the first one. I still have to watch the third one, though. I haven't even started on any of the other "regulars" yet.

I came across the Grumpy Cat one looking for stuff to watch, so I will definately watch that at some point befoe the challenge is over, although I'm not sure what to expect, to be honest. :lol:

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

I've seen them as well as Clark Gregg (from the Avengers), Roger Moore's popped up in one (this one's a bonus, not only a romantic holiday film, but has royalty!), and several teen actors from the 90s like Mario Lopez and Joey Lawrence. Seeing who you recognize is half the fun for me. Who needed a paycheck this season? lol!

As for Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever...well, I wouldn't expect greatness, but it's worth a watch if you enjoyed Grumpy Cat.

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

Clark Gregg and Roger Moore, I had no idea they were in any of them, but I'll look out for them. I've got a few in the "to watch" pile with Lopez and Lawrence, though. But, I've also have a few from Candace Cameron, Lacey Chabert, Tatyana Ali, Lori Loughlin, Danica McKellar, and Denise Richards in the stack. I already watched one with Tiffani Thiessen, too. Hallmark appears to be where 90's TV stars go to get a paycheck these days. It is nice to see them all again, though. Thanks for the warning on Grumpy Cat.. I'll save it for after I've watched something I really like. It'll be a nice contrast.

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

Gregg's is called The Road to Christmas with Jennifer Grey. Moore's is A Princess for Christmas. I enjoyed both of them and own both as well, if that helps. But it does sound like you have plenty to watch this year! I do like Cameron, Chabert, and McKellar whenever they appear. I'll make sure to tape their new movies each year when I see them. Cameron's Christmas Town was good. Just watched that myself. And let's not forget Melissa Joan Hart! She pops up fairly often as well!

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

I just finished up the Holiday Episodes of Felicity. Although they may not have been centered around Christmas, each of the four seasons had an episode set during the final weeks at the end of the fall semester. Such a great show!!!

Re: The 15th Annual Holiday Challenge 11/22-1/1
 

Silent Night Deadly Night 2 is such a trash movie. All it is is Billy's brother Ricky narrating the events of the first movie in an insane asylum.