Ho! Ho! Ho! Its a Christmas List, yo!

While watching this movie I couldn't stop thinking how God's Not Dead 2 somehow ripped off or remade the whole court sequences on this movie - except this one is much better.

So another marathon has come to an end as we've reached another Christmas day. Hope everyone has had a great day and thanks for going with me through this whole series of films as I revisited some good stuff and discovered others. Tomorrow I am starting a new series that might have some of you singing along a popular song by REM.

In terms of this movie, this was such a charm. I've already seen the 90s remake, but didn't…

84%
Miracle on 34th Street is such a delightful Christmas movie! I just adored this. It’s so heartwarming. It fills you with Christmas joy and warmth. It was also pretty brilliant. I loved the idea. It was pretty original. It’s funny but also can be sad at times. The message was amazing and the ending was so nice and happy. Edmund Gwenn was so delightful as Santa Clause. His performance was amazing. He was born to play the role. He captures everything that Santa represents. He brings so much innocence to the role which is needed to play Santa Clause. He really looked like him. He brought so much joy to the film. Every minute he was on screen, he…

75/100

Wondered if I might have ideological issues with this now, but it's not so much anti-rationalism as pro-imagination, primarily where young children are concerned. Apart from the cane in the very last scene (which really could just be coincidence), we're given no reason to believe that "Kris Kringle" is anything but a kindly old man suffering from a harmless delusion; whether he's really Santa Claus is ultimately unimportant, since his influence on those around him remains the same no matter what you believe. Seaton's script finds sharp, savvy avenues for its feel-good machinations (most notably the judge being schooled on the potential flaming wreckage of his career should he rule that there is no Santa), and there's a palpable…

There’s a certain irony to a movie that bemoaned the commercialisation of Christmas, that was itself a product of that very world, designed to make money by exploiting the affections and sentimentality of its audience. 

But I totally bought it. The smartest aspect of the film is that it is all too aware of its contradictions. On the one hand you have the steady moral standard-bearers of the story who try to promote the true values of Christmas, along with the doe-eyed children whose sweet innocence wins over the hearts of the doubters; while on the other there are the corporate bigwigs floating about in the background who dictate virtually every move, all of whom are concerned merely with personal…

Nun endlich habe ich auch das Original von "Das Wunder von Manhattan" gesehen. Wirklich schade, dass dieser Klassiker im deutschen Free-TV-Weihnachtsprogramm so selten ausgestrahlt wird. Das zugegeben gute, wenn auch nicht ebenbürtige Remake wird dagegen zu Hauf über die Weihnachtstage ausgestrahlt.

Aber nun zum Film:
Edmund Gwenn spielt Chris Kringle mit einem Enthusiasmus und einer Wärme, die schon beeindruckend ist. Ähnlich wie im Remake, soll er hier einen betrunkenen Weihnachtsmann im Kaufhaus ersetzen und schickt die Damen und Herren auch gerne mal zur Konkurrenz, wenn er es für richtig hält. Der große Unterschied zum Remake ist folgender: Hier wird Chris Kringle nicht von der Konkurrenz angeklagt, sondern von einem stark an Hitler erinnernden, fiesen Psychologen, der ihn für gefährlich und…