The Morning in Brooklyn Pre-Approved Holiday Movie List

Are you burnt out on multiple viewings of It's A Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause? Try substituting one or more of the following films for your Christmas-time movie watching needs. They always put me in the spirit of the season.

Die Hard (1988): Don't let the explosions, gun-fights, and liberal use of the F-word fool you -- this is a Christmas movie, through and through. Do I need to remind you that the whole reason New York cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) gets trapped in an L.A. high-rise with the terrorists in the first place is because he is visiting his estranged wife and kids for the holiday? Some may find only high-octane action in the narrative, but I look at it more as the story of a man trying to get home (in the spiritual, not architectural sense) for Christmas -- if only those 20 or more German terrorists with enough C4 to level Nakatomi Plaza will let him. If that doesn't do it for you, at least appreciate the best use of the song "Let it Snow" in a movie ever.

Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990): This time McClane has to save his wife from terrorists in a D.C. airport. It has everything great and Christmasy from the first film, but this time with the regionally appropriate use of snow.

Scrooged (1988): A modern-day retelling of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, filtered through the sensibilities of comedy great Bill Murray. Murray is Frank Cross, a TV network executive who must be visited by the ghosts of Latka Gravis' wife and Buster Poindexter to learn the true meaning of Christmas. It's highly quotable ("Could you please stop the damn hammering"), features the last performance of Karen Allen before she went into the FBI's relocation program, and has a great cameo by Lee Majors. Plus, my brother Ray, while working at Paramount Pictures, snuck onto the set, and disrupted filming when the studio executives he was hiding behind turned out to be extras in the film. He was yelled at and thrown off the set personally by director Richard Donner.

Love Actually (2003): If your name is anything other than Laura Renga, I guarantee that you will like this film. It's a veddy British comedy -- a pastiche of a dozen or so interconnected love stories, all set against the backdrop of Christmas in London. It stars just about every actor in the UK. It is unabashedly sweet, sentimental, and wears its heart on its sleeve -- but all is a good way. Plus, Keira Knightley's smile in the opening montage will melt your face off. I can't even make any snarky jokes about the film, because I loved it so much. I think in a few years it will be as popular a Christmas movie as Wonderful Life and Christmas Story. And just so you know, Renga thought Cat in the Hat was a good movie.

Catch Me If You Can (2002): Again, ostensibly not a Christmas film, but it was released over the holiday a few years back and reminds me of the season. Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Abagnale, a teenager who stole millions of dollars from banks by counterfeiting checks, and used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle that led to him impersonating an airline pilot, doctor, and lawyer. Tom Hanks plays the FBI agent who stays on the kids trail for years. The movie is a light mixture of comedy and drama, with a great supporting performance by Christopher Walken as Frank's dad. As the story takes place over several years, there are a few Christmas interludes, which also lends to my veiw of this as a Christmas movie. This is also the first film that had me thinking Steven Spielberg was stalking me when he used my local bank branch in Brooklyn as a stand in for the Chase Manhattan Bank. His recent remake of War of the Worlds substituted Park Slope for Boston. I hope all the attention doesn't drive the rent up.

The Godfather I & II (1972/1974): The Godfather Part III came out Christmas day of 1990 -- and my older siblings were very excited to see it. Since we don't leave the house on Christmas day, they decided they would all go to the first show the next day. I had never seen the Godfather films, but I liked going to the movies with my siblings, so I asked if I could tag along. My brother Ray had received videos of the first two films as a present, so I borrowed them from his gift pile and disappeared to the upstairs TV -- and for six hours straight that Christmas night I had a Godfather marathon. I was young enough to not understand it all, but I knew it was something special, and I was pretty blown away. I did pick up enough to be sorely disappointed the next day when we saw III, but that didn't diminish my appreciation for the original films. So if you feel like staying up past your bedtime Christmas night, there are worse ways to pass the time than by watching these two classics.

That's it. I wanted to include Christmas with the Kranks, but you know I just ran out of room.