Festive film or not? Brewdog Reading to screen four favourites

What makes a festive film? Snow? Good cheer? A happy ending? Santa saving the day? Will Ferrell in Elf?

Yes, but there is also a genre of film that happens to be set at Christmas, but aren’t regarded as Christmas movies. Or are they?

Reading’s Brewdog in Castle Street is preparing to show four films in the run-up to December 25, and it’s up to you to decide if they are Christmas movies or not.

The season is called Not A Festive Film Club.

The screenings start on Sunday, December 1, with Gremlins, and continue with Batman Returns, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and Die Hard.

Open to over 18s only, entry is by ticket costing £5 plus a booking fee. They include popcorn and a can of beer.

The screenings are from 6pm.

Is Gremlins a Christmas movie?

Young Billy Peltzer is given a strange pet, Gizmo, with the instruction never to expose him to bright light, water, or feed him after midnight.

Of course, the inevitable happens and the sweet and innocent little furry friend turns into a slimy, green hideous fiend. Lots of fiends in fact.

It became a Christmas to remember for Billy as he attempted to put the genie back into the bottle.

First released in 1984, the black comedy was a box office sensation.

Is Batman Forever a festive film?

The second Batman film was marketed as the Bat, the Cat and the Penguin and followed on from the 1989 smash-hit film starring Michael Keaton as the caped crusader.

Joining the cast were Michelle Pfeiffer as Selina Kyle who, after an accident, taps into her feline side as Catwoman.

She teams up with Danny DeVito’s Penguin: an orphan who was raised by penguins.

Wealthy industrialist Max Shreck (Christopher Walken) is abducted and blackmailed into helping the Penguin by kidnapping the children of Gotham’s mayor, so the Penguin can return them. A grateful city allows the Penguin to ascertain his true identity.

Things come to a head during the lighting ceremony for Gotham City’s Christmas tree… can Batman save the day, and Gotham City’s Christmas?

What about How The Grinch Stole Christmas?

Jim Carrey starred in the most recent film being shown at Brewdog Reading.

Made in 2000 and directed by Ron Howard, How The Grinch Stole Christmas is based on the Dr Seuss children’s book of the same name and shouldn’t be confused with an animated version made in the 1960s, nor the 2018 animated version.

The Grinch is a grump who hates Christmas and wants to stop the residents of Whoville from celebrating the season, going so far to steal the town’s presents and decorations.

There is a happy ending, proving that even the Grinchiest of people can find the true spirit of Christmas.

And is Die Hard the ultimate Christmas film?

It’s the late 1980s. Action films are all the rage: Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Gibson … all making hit after hit after hit.

Bruce Willis, on the other hand, was moonlighting on telly in the top show Moonlighting.

That all changed with Die Hard. It came out in 1988, and see New York detective John McClane single handedly thwart a terrorist takeover of a skyscraper in Los Angeles.

Playing against Alan Rickman as the evil Hans Gruber, Willis created box office gold and all in a film that just happened to be set on Christmas Eve.

So is it a Christmas film? Yes. Shouldn’t even be a question.  

How do I find out more about Brewdog Reading?

For more details, log on to: https://drink.brewdog.com/uk/brewdog-reading or call the bar on 0118 956 8755.

Read more: Pantomimes and festive plays in and around Reading this Christmas

A copyright note

Gremlins and Batman Returns © Warner Bros; How The Grinch Stole Christmas and Die Hard © Universal Pictures. Posters used under fair use dealings: Die Hard, Gremlins and Batman Returns: Wikipedia/ www.impawards.com/ How The Grinch Stole Christmas: Wikipedia/ https://www.goldposter.com/260971/