Ellipsis Christmas Movie Countdown #3

 

Howard: "This can't happen, it's just a doll, a stupid plastic doll."

Myron: "It's an action figure." 

~Jingle All The Way

Holiday shopping has certainly changed since the 1990's, especially toy shopping, I can remember folks standing in line at toy shops, and big box stores, just waiting for that one special deeply discounted Beanie Baby, or Xbox opportunity to open up. One woman, from southern California, was so desperate for an XBOX that she brought pepper spray with her to the sale at Walmart, and used it on other folks waiting in line. The ridiculous became the dangerous! Too many scary scenarios began to happen, as Black Friday morphed into something very dark. Hubby and I used to get up at 5 a.m. to hit the mall, just to watch folks go insane with greed, but that was when it was kind of cool to see the sudden mad dashes, and the creative way folks carried their purchases. It could be fun, but things just got to be too much.

Jingle All The Way, is about those mad dashes, and the lengths of which folks will go to buy their children the perfect gift. It's a fun movie, and it's lovely to see Phil Hartman, but while it definitely made fun of rabid shoppers, but it also brought a little heart to the matter. Looking back to the whole thing, it does make me sad to know it was fun for so many, but ruined so easily, by so few, and all it took was a bit of smashing to ruin the toy. I like this movie for it's message, the charm of Christmas, and getting our true priorities straight. And once again, the message of the film is brought together at the very end of the movie, by a little boy showing some much needed love for someone other than himself.

Just watch. You'll be glad you did!

Ellipsis Christmas Movie Countdown... #25

 

Lucy... 

"Peter once asked me when I fell in love with Jack,

 and I told him, it was while you were sleeping."

From the film, While You Were Sleeping

Do you believe in love at first sight? How about love at second sight? I think I believe in both. I was once in love with someone I had only know as we passed each other daily, walking into different jobs, on different sides of the same parking lot. Is it lust that makes us feel those warm and dizzying feelings, you know, the ones where we are so dazzled by someone's eyes, that you instantly forget what they look like when the walk away! 

Shrug.

I had known my husband since the late 1970's, eventually we became best friends, but it wasn't until the late 80's that we began to realize there had been something extraordinary going on. We didn't even know when it began, it was just there. Two years later, we were married, and because we started out as best friends, we had more than a little going for us!

While You Were Sleeping is a movie about the confusion of loneliness, and how it can turn it into the miracle of love, suddenly happening all around you. And learning about what love really is. Watch it. It's a terrific Christmas movie that isn't too Christmassy, and yet its all about the best of Christmas.