I am not a crook

Today is December 25th. A celebration all over the world. Some spend time with family and open presents while others go to the movies and eat Chinese food. I, like most Jewish people, are in the latter half. This year, the selection of Christmas day movie candidates was rather thin. Usually, this is the time of year that all the Oscar worthy movies come out. This year I was underwhelmed with the possible selections. Not that my selections in good years have ever been stellar. In fact, over the past few years, my track record of Christmas day selections downright stinks. Last year, National Treasure 2: Electric Boogaloo came out. That movie most likely will not make the list of AFI's top 100 movies the next time it is distributed. Over the past few years, Christmas Day selections have included The Producers (a movie based on a play based on a movie?), Babel (zzzzzzz.....), and Spanglish (no esta bien).

Based on my track record, we were extra picky this year in our Christmas movie selection even soliciting suggestions from people in the know. We settled on Frost/Nixon, a Ron Howard movie starring a whole bunch of people that you know from somewhere but can't recall exactly where you know them from. It also stars Kevin Bacon, just in case you run out of ways to link Kevin Bacon to other actors. I know I haven't seen very many movies this year but Frost/Nixon wins my vote for movie of the year. The acting was superb. Frank Langella should be a very strong candidate for Best Actor for his portrayal of Tricky Dick. The storyline was moving, as you don't know whether to sympathize or hate Nixon as he goes through his cathartic admission of guilt in the Watergate scandal. The docu-drama style of filiming helps tie the movie together. Two thumbs up from me.

Other random thoughts:

• I didn't think the Lakers-Celtics game would live up to the endless hype that ESPN had been giving the game. However, the game was great from start to finish (even if evil defeated good). I can't wait until they meet again in June. On a side note, I don't know how I never noticed this before but Pau Gasol has to be one of the ugliest basketball players alive. Popeye Jones and Sam Cassell are one-two in some order but Gasol is a close third.
• Is showing A Christmas Story twelve times on TBS today really going to get better ratings than, say, a Saved By the Bell marathon? If you are watching A Christmas Story at 4:30 in the morning, you'd better have a newborn child with you.