12 days of not-so-Christmassy Christmas movies: ‘In Bruges’

“In Bruges” (2008) – Travel experts claim that Bruges, Belgium has one of the best Christmas markets in Europe, and this city has kept its medieval construction to make the holiday festivities feel like an illustrious time warp. There’s nothing festive, however, about Ken (Brendan Gleeson) and Ray’s (Colin Farrell) Christmastime visit to Bruges, at the least the initial reason.  Their mobster boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) orders them to Bruges and hide out until the coast is clear.  Ken tries to make the best of it by taking in the…

12 days of not-so-Christmassy Christmas movies: ‘Edward Scissorhands’

“Edward Scissorhands” (1990) – Twenty-eight years after Tim Burton introduced his modern-day Pinocchio story about an artificial boy (Johnny Depp) who has scissors for hands, “Edward Scissorhands” still brings the tears. Burton does include a lot of satire, as he regularly pokes fun at suburbia throughout the picture, but he delves into Christmastime in the second half, and it seems that every single modest home in the camera frame dons festive lights. This fairy tale isn’t really a Christmas movie, but the holiday makes its mark, and especially when Edward…