Christmas Movies

I, Justin Groth, am the author of this blog, and by being the author I hold certain responsibilities like creating at least one post about Christmas around Christmas time. This blog will be about my top five Christmas desert island movies. That is, if I were stranded on a desert island around Christmas tiime with only a tv, dvd player, a generator to power the two previous items, and five movies about Christmas themes, this would be my list.

1. Christmas Vacation

2. Muppets Christmas Carol

3. Christmas story

4. White Christmas

5. Die Hard

Now, I understand there may be some confusion concerning the order of these movies, and I guess it is debatable. What is not debatable is Die Hard as a Christmas Movie. The movie clearly takes place during Christmas time, ideas such as helping out (protecting) your neighbor, and other Christmas-y ideas are very apparent in the movie. I understand that people may think of this as an action movie that happens to take place at Christmas, but just look at the plot according to Wikipedia with appropriate attention drawn to Christmas ideas by me:

On Christmas Eve, Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) of the New York City Police Department arrives in Los Angeles to reconcile with his estranged wife, Holly Gennaro (Bonnie Bedelia). McClane is driven to the Nakatomi Plaza building by a limo driver named Argyle (Ok so it is a reach, but argyle is Christmas-y)(De'voreaux White). The company Christmas party is disrupted by the arrival of thirteen terrorists led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman). The terrorists cut the telephone lines, seal the building exits, trapping Argyle and the limo inside the parking garage and replace the building guard with one of their own. Hans and his group secure the party goers as hostages, but McClane manages to slip into the stairwell of the building. ->Just like Santa manages to slip into chimneys of buildings like houses.

The rest of the plot unfolds just as you would expect any feel good Christmas movie to unfold. Bad guys lose, and good guy wins..he even gets his wife back! How Christmas movie-esque is that? I will tell you. It is very Christmas movie like so much so that it is definitively a Christmas movie.

There you have it. Die Hard is a Christmas movie so do not forget to watch this Christmas holiday classic this season. One more thing, if this were a list of 10 Christmas desert island films, you can bet Die Hard 2 would be on the list as well.

What do you think?

Barnett Newman Interview

It's been awhile(not to be confused with the Staind song)

Yes, it has been awhile(not to be confused with the staind song) since I have posted anything. I am planning on changing this. I just realized it doesn't make a difference since I do not think anyone follows my blog. The reason why I am rededicating myself to blogging is I just read my first two posts and I about peed my pants. OK, I exaggerated a little, but I figured if I am funny enough to make me laugh then I must be hilarious. I should not keep that humor from the world. Anyone who is now thinking, "wowser, this guy is totally full of himself". Well, you are obviously right on track, but then again that is why I am blogging right? (Yes, that was a reference to my second post-go read it). I am, however, not creative or mentally stimulated enough right now to keep dragging this post out. It really did not have much of a point other than to say I am blogging again. This is the end.

Television is great!

My friend Lauren said I should write about my super hero ideas on a blog so I did. I think I am now a hypocrite for writing a blog. I still refuse twitter. I guess back in the day I had a Xanga page, o yeah, remember Xanga? I really don't. I guess this is where I would say I really do not care what everyone thinks, and that I just want them to do whatever. That would be a lie. I hope you laugh and agree with what I have to say otherwise why would I post it to the internet if I didn't want someone to agree with me? So take that everyone who has some sort of idealistic idea of their posts and blogs!

Oh yeah this has nothing to do with tv, but I still like to watch it. Take that tv-haters!

Super Hero Teams

There are many super hero teams and tandems out there. Batman and Robin, the X-Men, Justice League, Captain Planet's group of teenagers are all groups that come to my mind. What also comes to my mind is how these groups always find a way to work together. I feel like there are super heros who should not be on the same team. That is to say the whole is way less than the sum of the parts. No one is going to pair up Man that controls fire and Water-Friend. Their super powers counteract each other. Man that controls fire (yes, that is his hypothetical super name) would be using his fire to burn an enemy and here comes Water-Friend who blasts out the fire with his water like an idiot. Just like that, the small arms dealers with inferior technology and no super powers take advantage of couple of super heros who were too dumb to realize they shouldn't be working together. Or if there was a super hero like Anger-Man he should not be paired with Love-Dude. There is no yin and yang combination of super heros. Anger-Man and Love-Dude would be a terrible duo on the super hero battle field, Anger and Love would probably fight more against each other than they would the other team. I just think it is unrealistic to believe super heros should be able to find a way to make all their specific powers and abilities to work together. I think we need a cartoon where the super hero team does not work well together and the moral of the story would be that sometimes groups do not work, they look good in theory, but in practice it doesn't work out.