When you ask a friend what their favorite holiday films are, you can usually guess at least a few of their go-to stalwart selections… National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Gremlins, Holiday Inn, Home Alone, some may even share in my strange tastes and actually enjoy Jingle All the Way (don’t judge). You can also usually get away with passing Die Hard off as a Christmas movie as well if you bring up “Ho Ho Ho” in conjunction with machine guns. It kind of works. At least, it has for me in the past when convincing the family what flick to turn on after gorging on Thanksgiving dinner.
So, ladies and gentlemen of the scientific fanboy community I ask – is Ghostbusters II a holiday film?
I know what you’re thinking. Dear merciful demigods, Chris just gave Troy the ability to write articles for Proton Charging and he’s already babbling crazy talk, trying to rile up the calm and serene PC atmosphere like Howard Beale on the air.
But hear me out, outside from the obvious examples like the crew running around in Santa hats, Vigo wanting to return to power at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve with a rocking celebration taking place outside the museum, etc. the key component to the film is goodwill toward your fellow man (and the effects of negative attitudes, anger, and aggression), right? The themes of the sequel seem to fit in with the common themes among Christmas movies, the time of year the film takes place fits, and there is plenty of holiday imagery to accompany.
But if we’ve commonly accepted Die Hard as a Christmas film, then where does our favorite 1989 sequel to Ghostbusters fit in the fray? Only one way to find out… see if you can convince your family that, even though watching Miracle on 34th Street for the 29th time in your life sounds like a swell idea, why not try busting some heads, in a holiday sense of course?
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