How Terrible Are Your Favorite Christmas Movies?
Do you have a favorite Christmas movie and is it actually any good? We all have movies that we loved as a kid and have since watched those movies as adults and ruined the happy memory we had of those movies being good.
The Peanuts Christmas special is a great example of that. I watched that every year as a kid and now I hate it and my kids would rather wash dishes than watch it.
Let's look at a batch of Christmas movies and see how good they really are based on the Tomatometer at Rotten Tomatoes. You can also check out the list from RT of the best Christmas movies.
ELF - Let's start with an easy one since most people like ELF and it is actually good. Elf is Certified Fresh by Rotten Tomatoes and has an 84% rating. Not the highest rating on our list but way better than most.
NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION - Here's another one that most people like but in this case it doesn't rate well. It gets a tomato rating and a 64% rating.
JINGLE ALL THE WAY - Not even Arnold Schwarzenegger could save this movie from an abysmal demise. Rated at just 16% this movie is 100% rotten.
FOUR CHRISTMASES - Here's one that I actually like but apparently nobody else does. Four Christmases gets a rotten rating of only 24%.
HOME ALONE (all of them) - Here's a franchise that struck gold and then quickly struck poop. The original Home Alone that we all love has a 62% rating which isn't really that good fro such a timeless movie. But after that they made two more - Home Alone: Lost In New York 27% rating and Home Alone 3 30% rating. Yes, there are three Home Alone movies and we are better off not mentioning the last two any more.
POLAR EXPRESS - This one surprises me because I thought everyone loved this movie. Full disclosure - I haven't seen it but my mom says it is great. Anyhoo - Polar Express is actually rotten rated at 55%.
HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS - This is where the Tomatometer gets a little weird. The cartoon version has a 100% rating but isn't certified fresh? The live action version with Jim Carey doesn't fare so well, and rightly so, with a 53% rating.
A CHRISTMAS STORY - Speaking of the weird ratings, Ralphie and the beloved leg lamp have a movie that is Certified Fresh but only an 89% rating.
WHITE CHRISTMAS - Here's a goody from 1954 with a well earned tomato rating of 77%.
THE SANTA CLAUSE TRILOGY - Here's a final case where the movie was really good and then the studio made more and missed the mark. The original Santa Clause was an original and fun take on a Christmas story and has a Certified Fresh 75% rating. From there it is a quick downward spiral. The second SC movie loses the fun and also the ratings at just 55%. But, that wasn't enough to kill off Santa's reputation. Nope, they made a Santa Clause 3 and it was everything you imagined the death of Santa to be. It got a dismal 15% rating.
Now, I know a Christmas movie list isn't complete without the non-Christmas movies that we insist on watching during Christmas. Which may be a good idea since they all rate better than most actual Christmas movies. Here they are:
Do you have a Christmas movie you love that may actually be terrible?