ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[Fran]

From IMDb:  

It seems as if Santa Claus (Bill Goldberg) is actually a demon who lost a bet to an angel. Because of the bet, Santa now had to be nice and deliver gifts to the children of the world for 1000 years. It turns out that last year was year one thousand, and now Santa is pretty upset and taking it out on innocent families.

Nicholas (Douglas Smith) is a teenager who has taken after his grandfather and is not particularly fond of the Christmas holidays. Soon, it is revealed to Nicholas how Santa came about by his grandfather. Since Santa has, for some reason, targeted Nicholas, he and his girlfriend, Mary (Emilie de Ravin), take it upon themselves to destroy the Christmas demon.

[southendmd]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDKP7epNr6w[/youtube]

Max Fleischer's last cartoon.  The first version of Johnny Marks' famous  Christmas song.

[oilgun]

From IMDb:
On Christmas Eve, in the Styxx Club in Paris, the troublemaker Bart and his scum friends, Thaï and Ladj, meet the bartender Yasmine and the customer Eve, and after a fight of Bart in the nightclub, Eve invites the group to go to her house in the country. While on the road near the cottage, they are introduced by Eve to the weird shepherd and housekeeper, Joseph, whose wife is pregnant. Joseph feels a sort of attraction for Bart, and during this Christmas night, Joseph discloses his real intentions.

[memento]

Though tempted by crime, Bill Firpo has managed to stay on the right road, unlike his jailbird brothers, compulsive liar Dave and kleptomaniac Alvin. After overcrowding leads to an early parole for Dave and Alvin, they get Bill to take them to Paradise, PA., where on Christmas Eve, the three brothers pull off the easiest bank robbery imaginable. Leaving the literally nice-little-town of Paradise, though, is not as easy as they imagined...

[southendmd]

IMDb plot:  The night before Christmas, dad has to stop his two excited children from fighting. But Scoop hates his sister Hela and wishes her dead. Everything they say and do comes true in an unreal parallel world. Hela decides to become a Ghost and haunt Scoop even more. Scoops world without rules soon starts to fall apart and he soon finds he needs both rules and his sister.

[Fran]

Original title:  Vito e gli altri

From IMDb:  VITO AND THE OTHERS is the groundbreaking film which drew international attention to the problem of neglected youth and street crime in poverty-stricken Naples. The film's opening moments are startling and deeply disturbing. A despairing Rosario has just murdered his wife and daughter at the dinner table on New Year's Eve. Somehow, Vito quietly convinces his father to drop the gun, spare their lives, and call the police. Placed in the custody of sexually abusive relatives, Vito is left free to roam the trash-strewn back streets of Naples where he and his friends engage in drug abuse, prostitution, and petty crime. Ably acted by a large cast of nonprofessional street kids, VITO AND THE OTHERS is a heartrending portrait of innocents without a future.

[oilgun]

FromIMDb:
Della Myers is an upper-class housewife that lives in a private condominium in the suburbs with her twin children and her abusive husband Kenneth. Della gives all the attention to the twins, neglecting their house and her appearance and upsetting Kenneth. On the Christmas Eve, she drives to the local mall in the night to buy wrapping paper for the gifts, and she does not find any parking space available. When she sees an old car parked on two spots, she leaves a message to the owner calling him "selfish jerk". When the mall closes, Della's car is hold by the driver of the old car and she is threatened by four punks - Chuckie, the Afro-American Huey, the Chinese-American Vingh and the Latin Tomás. When the security guard of the mall protects her, he is shot on the head by Chuckie, Della speeds up her car trying to escape from the criminals. However she crashes her truck nearby a forest while chased by the gang. She takes the toolbox and hides in the wood, fighting against the gang to survive.

[southendmd]

IMDb plot:  A young girl named Addie, living in Nebraska in 1946 wants nothing more for the holidays than a Christmas tree, but her widowed father, is bitter and refuses due to events from the family's past.

A sentimental favorite for me.  My sixth grade class "adapted" the story and made it our own.  Whenever I see Jason Robards, I think of this film.

[Fran]

I was unable to find a poster or even a photograph from the film, but here's a list of the cast and crew:

From IMDb:  While carolling, a young girl discovers that her neighbors have lost the spirit of Christmas.

[memento]

IMDb plot:  The Vuillard family gathers: Junon and Abel, a daughter Elizabeth and her son Paul, Henri and a girlfriend, Ivan, his wife Sylvia and their young sons, and cousin Simon. Six years before, Elizabeth paid Henri's debts and demanded he never see her again or visit their parents' home. Paul, at 16, has mental problems and faces a clinical exam. Junon learns she needs a bone marrow transplant if she's to live beyond a few months: thus the détente bringing all together. Two family members have compatible marrow, but the spats, fights, cruel words, drunken toasts, and somewhat civilized bad behavior threaten all; plus Junon may simply refuse treatment. Do we know ourselves?