Megaplex’s Main Street Cinema brings Christmas gems back to the big screen
Megaplex’s Main Street Cinema is getting into the spirit of the season and bringing a handful of holiday-appropriate gems to town from Dec. 14 through Christmas, and at only $1.50 a ticket, it’s a perfectly affordable night out for the whole family!
Better still, the lineup is great! There’s a little something in the mix for everyone! Even for those of you who like your holiday movies with a little more bite.
For those of us who love Christmas, it’s safe to say that we love it for a myriad of reasons: The lights, the trees, snuggling up by the fire with our loved ones, that warmhearted feeling you get inside, etc. Also high on the list are Christmas movies!
While I can’t speak for the rest of you, I can say with utmost certainty that holiday films are quite the pastime in the Mast household. And while the home is the perfect place to kick back and watch a yuletide classic with the family, nothing beats seeing a great Christmas movie in the theater.
I’ve always been an avid proponent of the theatrical experience. It’s simply built into my DNA. That said, there’s even something a little bit extra special about taking in a really terrific holiday picture in a theater: the big screen, the grand sound, the like-minded crowd ready to get all warm and fuzzy inside. Yep! Gotta love it!
You can bet I’ll be taking the family out to see the majority of these films before Christmas hits! Happy holidays, everyone! See you at the movies!
Here’s the lineup.
“Elf” (PG)
The set-up is simple. Raised by elves in the North Pole, Buddy is functioning under the delusion that he too is an elf until Santa clues him in on the truth: He’s actually a human! His birth father (played by the great James Caan) is a publisher of children’s books in New York, and as fate would have it, dad also happens to be on the naughty list. So Buddy leaves the friendly confines of his chilly surroundings and heads out for the Big Apple where he hopes to reconnect with the father he never knew he had. This splendid holiday film simply has it all. It’s overflowing with cotton balls, syrup, beef and cheese, the World’s Greatest Cup of Coffee, and of course Christmas spirit!
“Gremlins” (PG)
A salesman (played by Hoyt Axton) purchases a strange creature he finds in a run-down shop in the heart of Chinatown and presents it to his son Billy (played by Zach Galligan) as a Christmas gift. As it turns out, this cuddly little furball comes with a very specific set of rules: Keep them out of the light, don’t get them wet, and whatever you do, don’t feed them after midnight. Of course, through the duration of this lively film, all of these rules are broken. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have a movie, would we? “Gremlins” is a perfect fusion of dark comedy, tragedy, warmth, and of course Christmas cheer (if caroling Gremlins don’t warm your heart, I don’t know what will). All of these tonal shifts are handled with absolute precision by the great Joe Dante.
“Home Alone” (PG)
Directed by Chris Columbus, who at the time was known more for his screenwriting skills (he wrote “Gremlins” and “The Goonies”), and starring a cute and precocious Macaulay Culkin, “Home Alone” would go on to take the box office by storm with it’s Christmasy tale of a young boy left to fend for himself after his family inadvertently leaves him — you guessed it — home alone during a very chaotic Christmas. Little Kevin McCallister doesn’t seem very bothered by the mishap, though. That is, until a couple of burglars try to break into his house. With its cartoony violence (co-stars Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern are relentlessly put through the ringer during the final act), warm and fuzzy sentimentality, and high-energy direction, it should come as no surprise that “Home Alone” has emerged as a holiday classic, and after watching it on several occasions, it’s easy to see why Culkin, who was coming in fresh off of his scene-stealing work in John Hughes’ “Uncle Buck,” was the most sought-after child actor in the movie business in the early ’90s.
“Miracle on 34th Street” (1947)
Anyone who doesn’t believe that Santa Claus exists clearly hasn’t seen “Miracle on 34th Street.” While the charming ’90s redo starring Mara Wilson and Richard Attenborough is terrific, it’s the original black-and-white film from 1947 that will go down in history as one of the all-time Christmas greats! This classic stars adorable little Natalie Wood as a precocious youngster who befriends the big man himself. Santa is played by the great Edmund Gwenn with such charm and such undeniable warmth that you’ll walk away from this movie a true believer.
“The Polar Express” (PG)
Robert Zemeckis (“Back to the Future”) directed this visual marvel based on the children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg. Featuring national treasure Tom Hanks in multiple roles, this computer-animated fantasy tells the tale of a young boy who embarks on a magical journey to the North Pole by way of The Polar Express. Along the way, he learns a little about himself and the spirit of Christmas. Despite much talk of the creepy “dead eye” effect in this picture, there’s no doubt that this visual stunner is best experienced on the big screen.
For more on Megaplex’s Christmas film series at Main Street Cinema, click here.
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