By Chris McEwen

Winter break is just around the corner, and though many of us have another week of finals to look forward to, this is the perfect time of year to take a study break with some seasonally appropriate cinematic fare. However, you’ve seen all the classics before. It’s a Wonderful Life? Terrific picture, but there’s only so many times you can watch Jimmy Stewart verbally abuse his family. A Christmas Story? Love it, but we know the Chinese restaurant scene by heart after all these years. Rather, why not head on to Netflix Instant to check out some more unconventional holiday movies? These flicks may contain some things you don’t traditionally consider to be all that festive — machine guns, mad scientists, Mel Gibson — but at the end of the day, all of them are movies that are thematically tied to the season of giving.

Die Hard

In our book this isn’t just one of the very best action movies ever made — it’s a damn Christmas classic. What makes Die Hard great though isn’t the explosions or the shootouts — it’s the fact that John McClane is just a regular guy who wants to see his wife and kid, and is forced to walk across glass barefoot for his troubles. Now that’s the kind of guy you can root for, especially when you have him squaring off with a villain as incredible as Hans Gruber (a delightful Alan Rickman). Besides, how can you say that you celebrate the holidays and pass up a movie that features the immortal line “Now I have a machine gun — ho ho ho”?

Edward Scissorhands

Sure, most Tim Burton/Johnny Depp collaborations nowadays feel like cheap, disposable cash-grabs, and for good reason — did you even see Alice in Wonderland? (Sweeney Todd was pretty tight though.) But back in the day, before Jack Sparrow happened, the two seemed committed to putting out really good, really strange, and really personal pieces of genre fare, Edward Scissorhands included. For most of the film, the screen may be littered with grotesque, bright suburban pastels, but by the time Edward Scissorhands reaches its bizarrely poignant conclusion, you’ll realize why this is the perfect movie to have on hand during a snowy winter night.

The Hudsucker Proxy

Tim Robbins as a loveable doofus! Jennifer Jason Leigh as a fast-talking dame! Paul Newman just kind of chilling and being Paul Newman! Sure, The Hudsucker Proxy may not be quite as seminal as Coen brothers classics like Fargo and Lebowski, but it’s easily one of their most underrated efforts, if not also a pretty relentlessly entertaining take on the screwball comedy. Man, between this movie (which is set around New Year’s Eve), our next pick, and the aforementioned It’s a Wonderful Life, why are so many holiday movies about people finding reasons not to commit suicide? Anybody?

Lethal Weapon

Remember back in those halcyon days when Mel Gibson wasn’t a crazy, misogynistic, racist, homophobic asshole? Yeah, we don’t quite either, but he’s got enough sheer charisma and screen presence in this flick to make you seriously wonder what the hell ever happened to Riggs. All the same, for one of the very first buddy cop movies ever made, Lethal Weapon still plays like gangbusters (though we’re all also big Tango and Cash fans here at Local). Unfortunately though, many neglect the fact that this movie is set at Christmastime, even though the film has such a great holiday message — you can always count on your buttoned-down partner to convince you not to kill yourself over your dead wife. Having said all that, considering how convincing their on-screen camaraderie feels, we are inclined to wonder how well Danny Glover and Mel Gibson get along nowadays in light of certain recent events… We suppose the former just is getting too old for this shit after all.