Top 10 Must-Watch Holiday Movies (With Surprising Picks!)

Hi, welcome to the Real Generation Gap. I'm Rudy Ruiz. Merry Christmas, everybody, from Fred Soteli. And today we're going to be sharing with you our five picks for the holiday season, different movie recommendations, whether it be Christmas movies or just movies we enjoy to watch during this time of the year. So in no particular order, let's hear what you've got. What's your first on the list? Okay, my concept of this is not necessarily Christmas story movies. In other words, it's not Miracle on 34th Street. It's not, you know, It's a Wonderful Life or something like that. These are movies that I think that people, when they gather, would have fun having this on in the room while they socialize. Not an intense viewing, just something in the room. And so I'm going to pick one right out of the middle of my list to really throw a curveball to the whole thing. And I think everybody would really enjoy watching Jaws. The original movie, Jaws. It's not a movie you have to concentrate. You can come in and out of the room. You can go do things and come back and people can talk over it, you know. And for some reason, I have seen this at Christmastime many times throughout my life. It seems, you know, you come over, it's like you're watching Jaws. So the first one I'll recommend is Jaws. Okay. I like that. I like that start. Yeah. So for me, I've got a mix. I've got Christmas movies and, you know, one or two that I, or I guess just one that I like to watch around this time because I first saw it in the winter. And for me, my first pick is going to be Il Grande Silencio, or in other words, The Great Silence by Sergio Corbucci. It's a spaghetti western starring John Trignan and Klaus Kinski about some bounty hunters and a mute, you know, guy that's trying to get the bounty hunters and the sheriff. It is one of the great western movies I've ever seen. It's my all-time favorite. And it's a winter set western. So it's all in the snow, you know. So I always think like Christmas, winter time. I first saw it in December and now it's a yearly watch for me. Very dark, gritty, amazing ending. It's brutal. If you like a good, brutal ending and a wonderful score by Ennio Morricone. I'm going to watch that. I'd never seen that. I guarantee you I've never, I thought when you started saying it, I'm like, oh yeah, I remember that. It was like, no, I don't know. Not in the snow. So now I wonder what the heck was I thinking? I got to go back and figure out, it'll come to me later. Yeah. So that'll be my first pick for a good December watch. That's a good recommendation for me. So I'm going to watch that. Now, last year, I did this the same kind of a thing and I recommended a movie and I'm going to recommend it again. I didn't want to do that, but something happened. And once again, this is a movie that I've watched during the Christmas holiday. There's that whole week that you're not sure what you want to see. And once again, this is a movie that you can have on when people are over and you can come in and out of it. You don't have to watch the whole thing intently because it's just solid movie stars, total all-star cast. And it's just all jokes. And that is a mad, mad, mad, mad world. It's I think 1961, if I'm not mistaken. And every actor that was popular then is in this movie. It was like 20, 20 A list actors, Spencer Tracy, you know, and it's really a funny movie. It's very clever. It's full of jokes. Jonathan Winters is in it. You know, he's just great all the time. There's so many good people and it's like three hours long. So it's way too long to sit and watch the whole movie. You know, you, you get saddle sore, right? So it's just something good to have on when the people are over. Now, as much as I want to alternate, the reason that I am doing this this way is they remade the movie many years later, like 40 years later with another giant all-star cast rat race. That's right. The rat race equally funny, equally funny. Rowan Atkinson, John Cleese, a guy named Vince Veloff. Yeah. Right. He he's sensational. Not a name actor that I know, but he really does a good job and he's got Cuba Gooding, John Lovitz, John Lovett, and Amy Smart, right. And, and, and others. So lots of others. And once again, it's, it's full speed, high comedy. It's, it's the same basic story, the same basic idea. A whole bunch of people are on a treasure hunt and it's a race to whoever's going to get there first. And so I, I recommend both of those movies. The rat race is like an underrated, I think 2001, the original one 61. So, you know, 40 years, 40 years later, and it really is just fun. It's just crazy, silly fun. Yeah. I, I haven't seen rat race in a minute. I do like that movie. I love that kind of recurring joke with John Cleese and all his buddies and the suits that are just gambling about everything. Like every little thing they have. They have that scene where the people who work in the hotel, like the cleaning staff are hanging by curbs and they're betting on who will fall off last. Right. Who ever, who can hang on the longest and that, that aspect of the people betting on the race is really funny because in the original movie, they, Spencer Tracy says, oh, these two idiots locked themselves in a room, have somebody go ahead and release them. And one of their police officers says, oh no, you can't do that. You can't interfere in this. And he says, what, what's the difference? Whoever finds that we get the money. And he goes, no, this is a race helping one team is not fair. It wouldn't be fair. They have to get out in their own way. He goes, I myself, I'm rooting for Jonathan Winters, the truck driver. I'm hoping he's the one like the police are actually rooting. They want to see they're going to recover stolen money. Yeah. You know, anyway, give, give, give us another real good recommendation. Now that was a silly too. My next one I'm going to go with is I'm going to say the dirty dozen, man. It's not a winter set movie, but it's another one that I think the same year, a few years ago that I watched the great silence. I also watched the dirty dozen. It was a period of, you know, I was on winter break. I was a teacher at the time. So I'm trying to watch the movies I haven't seen yet. And I fell in love with that movie. I think I watched it two or three times within that week. The dirty dozen is a movie that you watch straight through. Yeah. I mean, you hunker down, get your drink in front of you. Yeah. I will say like, yeah, all my recommendations, please watch them. They're not background movies like watch them. Um, but yeah, I know they're talking about stacked cast, man, John Cassavetes. Yeah. I mean Lee Marvin who just talked about, uh, I, every Jim Brown, everybody, Charles Bronson, everyone, so many people. If you're one of the people that's into these comic books, movies, it's yeah. Right. That's right. Tell us of all this. Um, you know, if you're not familiar with it, but you're someone who likes comic book movies and you've seen the suicide squad, like this was the suicide squad. Like that's what, that's a rip off of inglorious bastards definitely took massive influence from this movie. Um, but the dirty dozen, one of the all time, all time greats. It really is. Now we'll, we'll shift gears and we'll have actually a Christian movie because you know, Jesus is the reason for the season. Right. They say, right. So what I'm recommending is the 10 commandments. Oh, okay. Charlton Heston. Yeah. And it's got classic lines, you know, let my people go and everything. And the special effects are phenomenal. The part into the red sea and when the staff becomes the serpent and you know, the, the gas that comes through Egypt and kills all the first born sons and stuff. So it's a Christmas time, the 10 commandments. It's a, it's a must see. Yeah. As far as I'm concerned, it does. It's a wonderful religious aspect. So I think it's really appropriate. Yeah. I wanted to have at least one really good Christian movie. It's a misnomer to say that there was no Christ yet. Right. This is, this is old Testament, right? This is Exodus. Yeah. Right. So even though it's, it's still honors God, it's a good thing to do during the Christmas season. And I think it's, it's one that all plays on TV still every year. I want to say like Christmas week, I'm going to go with Scrooge with Bill Murray. It is important to remember the true meaning of Christmas. Don't miss Charles Dickens immortal classics. Not bad. There's so many, there's so many, you know, takes on a Christmas Carol and all that. And I honestly get kind of the sick of it. Like I can go my whole life, never seeing any of them again, but Scrooge always hits, you know, and I, and I love sometimes new Beverly will put it on the double feature with Christmas vacation, which are laying, those are two of the Christmas movies I like grew up with. So it's a, it's always a fun double bill if you get to see it there in a theater. Yeah. And yeah, Scrooge's is brilliant. Like that's the only Charles Dickens adaptation That's a funny recommendation. Okay. Now a lot of times on Christmas or, or during that time you're alone, everybody's finally left. It's it's they've left at eight o'clock at night and you're, you're not going to go to bed for several hours or whatever. So you're alone or maybe just with your loved one. And that's when you want to see the classic The Godfather. You're going to sit down and get a serious look at GF one. And maybe the next night, cause it's a long, both GF two, the God, the Godfather part two, which is an absolute, both of them are such a masterpiece in their own right. And together, it's an Epic. And to me, it's a study, you know, being that my name is Satilly. And so I really recommend this time to review the Godfather for all America. And I, I don't know if you, that's your thing out there, but if you find yourself in that quiet period and maybe you've had a drink, you might want to watch that. That's a good set. This feels like the, like the fire's going on and you're just there with your bourbon. Yeah. You just finished eating some chicken. I have a bottle of makers. Yeah. No, that's, that's a, that's a good one. That's a good, that's a really good one. Did you see that show? The offer I'm going to do a quick, if you haven't Paramount plus, it came out maybe two years ago. Oh no, I don't know about that. It is highly recommend for everybody. The offer a miles Teller was the lead actor in it, but it's about, it was a limited series. I think six or eight episodes about the making of the Godfather and they shot it at Paramount studios and everything. It's so that I need that in my inventory. It is, it's such a good show. And again, it's six or eight episodes. So it's not like you're locked down for six years. It's not a big commitment, you know, the son's anarchy. Yeah. It's, it's so good. I've watched that. I've watched it twice already. And it's a really good look for anyone who's unsure. Like what do producers even do? And what's that gig and blah, blah, blah. It's really about the producer who, who got it done and the suits. And also it just goes through the whole process. It's really great. I'll leave it at that. The offer Paramount. So that's a TV show. Yeah. TV show. We're not above that. We're not. In fact, I'd like to do more of that to be perfectly honest. That might be one. Give me another great movie. Give me a close it out. I'm going to do a quick, uh, honorable mention, which I kind of said already Christmas vacation. I got to throw that in there. Chevy chase the gang, such a great movie, um, laughs every single time, but number two on my list right now, I have to go. And this is maybe one where I guess you could put it on in the background. If you want, I say still sit down, watch it. If you're lucky, go find a screening of it in Los Angeles, somewhere, see it with the crowd in a big theater with loudspeakers die hard. Do you really think you have a chance against us? Mr. Cowboy. You hang in there. We get together, have a few laughs. John McTiernan's 1988. I want to say, die hard Christmas movie, action movie of film. Yeah. Yeah. A film that should be studied in film schools. For me, it's in the Pantheon of like perfect movies, you know? And I mean, if we're talking like script and story structure and every, everything, every single scene, every moment having a purpose and driving the narrative for me. Oh, I love that. That hurt my feet watching that movie. I said like an incredible film. I mean, what more is there to say about it? If you haven't seen it, I mean, I didn't watch that movie until maybe 10 years ago, for some reason, I never grew up with it. And I absolutely fell in love. The first time I saw it was at a Christmas Eve screening at the new Beverly cinema. Quentin Tarantino was sitting two rows behind me laughing his head off, you know, it was a pack theater. Cause that's the one that he runs. So it was his film print. I'd imagine. And yeah, die hard American classic right there. It sure is. It sure is. Yeah. Is that the end of your list? I have one more. I saw my number one. Let's have it. Let's go for it. All right. Here we go. Some doubles, you know? Okay. Yeah. My number one, my number one. And I just recorded a drinks in a movie podcast episode about this. We're going Bob Clark's classic Christmas masterpiece, Black Christmas. If you know, Bob Clark, y'all thought I was going to say a Christmas story. Nope. We're doing Black Christmas from 1974 with Margot Kidder, Olivia Hussey, slasher movie that really kind of started that whole, there's no Friday the 13th or Halloween without Black Christmas. Amazingly shot. Amazingly well-directed. It's Bob Clark, like at his peak, I think such a great movie even stars Kira DeLay from a 2001, a space odyssey. And yeah, if you have not seen Black Christmas and you love horror movies, you love a good like slasher film from back in the day and you want to see one, it's a late night. Oh yeah. That's it. Yeah. Right. Yeah. This is you and a couple of beers with your friends. I'm going to fall asleep before the end, you know, with the cozy, the cozy cover, you know, no Black Christmas. Highly recommend if you like horror movies, you like good old school slashers and you just want to see the one that really kind of started it all. Black Christmas is the way to go. And I just love the fact too, that that same director, Bob Clark would go on to make a Christmas story, which, you know, they put it on 24 hours on Christmas day. It's one of the staples in like American holiday cinema, I guess you could say. That's ironic. Yeah. But his first like Black Christmas is the one for me. So that's my list. Well, those are great recommendations and I didn't see some of them. So I'm going to actually watch this video and then remember, yeah, this is my notes, right? Catch those and catch up with you a little bit because you do have an appreciation. That's it's pretty, pretty high scale. Yeah. I try, I try to watch a lot. Even, even with that sweater. Yeah. My Method Man Wu-Tang Clan sweater. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Okay. Oh yeah. I see the across the top here. Yeah. That's a great one. That's a great one. Anyway. Yeah. So that's a wrap on this one, everybody. If you've got any recommendations for us or any holiday favorites or even movies that aren't holiday related, but you'd like to watch it this time of year, leave a comment so that we can maybe check them out. What is your family tradition? Yeah. Let us know. Let us know what y'all are watching. It turned out to be Jaws. Go figure. How could that possibly be? Right? Yeah. That's still a summer movie for me. I actually last summer saw at the Chinese theater, the big full IMAX screen. You're not afraid to go to theaters and watch these movies, are you? Oh no, I love it, man. Like, and I went on the 4th of July, 4th of July screening, matinee at the Chinese theater. We're not closing the beach. A big crowd. I love it. And there's even, what I love too, sorry, now I digress, but what I love is you get little kids that their parents are too, and they've never seen Jaws. So the fact that their first time seeing it is on the big screen in the theater that they probably had the premiere there, I'd imagine back in the day is so, so I love to hear like young kids and people scream at all the right moments. That would be, you know how they have those inflatable screens that they put on the beach and stuff. That would be a great movie to have on the beach. I'm sure someone's done that. Yeah. And if not, they got it. They have to make that happen. I guess, you know, as I, as I said, the opening Merry Christmas to all, and I hope you get a chance to watch some of these movies. Do you have a little message you want to? Yeah, no, that's it. Just stay safe, have fun, drink some bourbon and a happy holidays. Merry Christmas. All that stuff. Yeah. Thanks. See you next year.