NOW’s Best of 2010 issue came out yesterday instead of today, so the list of my top ten movies is old news. Today, let’s consider my MSN Movies gallery of the year’s best casting — because putting the right actor in a key role can be the thing that makes or breaks your movie.
Oh, and over at the NOW site, I court the ire of the National Post by offering up “Elf” as a contemporary holiday movie to be treasured. Sorry, “Fred Claus” fans, it just ain’t happening.
I’m going to combine the theme of your links and offer up what I think is the best casting in a more contemporary Christmas movie…Jan Rubes in One Magic Christmas. Now THAT’S a Santa! (Okay, 1985 might not count as contemporary for some people, but for me it means something my daughter saw as a kid instead of what I saw as a kid.) Do you have a favorite movie Santa?
You know, I don’t. Paul Giamatti _should_ have been my favorite Santa in “Fred Claus”, but the movie’s horrible. “One Magic Christmas” is pretty great, but since it’s 25 years old it probably doesn’t fit the contemporary requirement.
Sigh. We’re all so very old.