MOVIE QUIZ: IS THIS A CHRISTMAS FILM?
For every “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 34th Street,” there are dozens of other films that ignite heated arguments over whether they are or are not legitimate Christmas movies.
Just because it has one scene set on the holiday doesn’t make it a yuletide tradition, some feel, not without the proper themes of peace on Earth, good-will to men. Others say, “Is there a tree? Is it December? Does someone deck the halls? That’s a Christmas movie.”
Our gift to you is the quiz below. Whether the movies contained within make your days merry and bright or so blue just thinking about them, can you guess all the right answers?
1. The “Is it a Christmas movie” debate usually centers on “Die Hard.” That 1988 Bruce Willis action classic takes place on Christmas Eve and has its very vocal devotees who proclaim it a holiday film. True or false: The first sequel, 1990’s “Die Hard 2,” set at a snowcovered Washington Dulles International Airport, is also set on Christmas Eve.
2. The 1993 filmed version of “The Nutcracker,” the Christmas Eve-set Tchaikovsky ballet reimagined by choreographer George Balanchine, stars a child actor who three years before starred in a family comedy that has now become a Christmas staple. Who was it?
3. “Meet Me in St. Louis,” the 1944 musical starring Judy Garland, features the singer-actress introducing the now holiday standard, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” But the film actually follows the lives of a family over the course of a whole year, 1903-04, culminating in what international event?
4. “Batman Returns,” the 1992 sequel to 1989’s “Batman,” takes place during Christmas season in Gotham City. Which one of the movie’s three villains – Max Schreck (Christopher Walken), the Penguin (Danny Devito) or Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) – frame Batman for a crime during
the city’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony?
5. Earlier this year, a comedydrama was up for but lost nine Academy Awards. It reunited its two stars and the writer-director from a 2008 film set at Christmastime in Belgium, even if the holiday doesn’t figure into the plot at all. Name that earlier film.
6. Loosely based on a real event, 2001’s “Behind Enemy Lines” follows a Navy flight officer who is shot down during the Bosnian War on Christmas Day. Who played the part?
7. One movie that follows a group of characters for a year from one Christmas Eve to the next is this 2005 musical. It was an adaptation of a Broadway show that won four of the ten Tonys for which it was nominated; the movie, however, didn’t score a single Oscar nod, despite having much of the same cast. Name it.
8. Another action movie set during Christmas, though it doesn’t figure into the plot, is 1987’s “Lethal Weapon.” But which classic holiday tune plays over the opening credits: Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock”; Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”; Chuck Berry’s “Run Run Rudolph”; or James Brown’s “Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto”?
9. Not only does this 2015 period drama begin while the main character is Christmas shopping in a department store, but the title has a double holiday meaning. What is it?
10. In which of these Robert Downey Jr. movies does Christmas NOT figure: “Iron Man 3”; “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”; “Less Than Zero”; or “Home for the Holidays”?