Classic holiday movies hitting Duluth theaters – Duluth News Tribune

DULUTH – The holidays are all about traditions, and for many people, those traditions include re-watching favorite seasonal movies. Now it’s easy to do so from the comfort of your living room, but two Duluth movie theaters are offering the opportunity to watch Christmas classics on the old-fashioned big screen. What’s more traditional than that?

Here’s a guide to what’s coming in 2025. Check the Marcus Duluth Cinema and Zeitgeist Zinema websites for specific showtimes.

Zeitgeist Zinema, November 29-30 and December 6-7

This sweet, funny rendition of Charles Dickens’ 1843 novel was always poignant for Muppet fans: It was the first film starring Jim Henson’s beloved characters after Henson’s 1990 death. Henson’s son Brian directed “A Christmas Carol”, starring Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge.

It became a childhood touchpoint for many millennials, and remains the most-watched “Christmas Carol” on the big screen. However, if you go to see it in the theater, you might be surprised by how many people laugh at the joke as if they’ve never seen it before. There will be at least a few people out there who haven’t done it yet.

Marcus Duluth Cinema, December 5-11

Some would say it’s actually based on Dr. Seuss’s 1957 book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” There was no reason to make another screen adaptation of. Following the pitch-perfect 1966 TV special, narrated by Boris Karloff. However, Universal Pictures had 528 million reasons to greenlight this animated reboot: more than half of them were domestic box office dollars, and the remainder were international box office dollars.

Benedict Cumberbatch voices the title character, Pharrell Williams has tagged Karloff as the narrator – and to the continued surprise of hip-hop fans, Tyler, the Creator has contributed a song.

Marcus Duluth Cinema, December 5-11

“Elf” is the kind of movie every producer hopes for: the right idea, the right actor, the right timing. Without blinking, without blinking, Will Ferrell fits the bill perfectly as Buddy, an elf from the North Pole who sets out to find his father. He’s given a pitch-perfect counterpart in Bob Newhart as an older, calmer elf. Jon Favreau’s film also benefits from sterling production design, including a monochromatic Santa’s workshop that nods to an already famous elf recreation: the stop-motion “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

The result is the best kid-turned-adult-body movie ever made – apologies for “Big” and “Freaky Friday.”

Marcus Duluth Cinema, December 12-18

Amid all the buzz over “Jaws’s” 50th birthday, you could be forgiven for forgetting the fact that 2025 marks the anniversary of another cinematic milestone: 25 years ago, Jim Carrey hit the screen in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

Carrey’s casting in the role, in retrospect, seems so inevitable that if director Ron Howard had not stepped in, the film might have arisen spontaneously. It became one of the highest-grossing films of Carrey’s career to date – would you have guessed that the top two were “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” and “Bruce Almighty”? While Carrey is the main attraction, it’s Howard’s touch for genuine emotion that makes this film more enduringly appealing than “Bruce Almighty.”

Marcus Duluth Cinema, December 12-18

From the perspective of 2025, when computer-generated actors are threatening to take over the jobs of real people, 2004 seems like a long time ago. “The Polar Express” is a textbook illustration of “the Uncanny Valley”, the phenomenon where a representation is so realistic that it cannot seem beautiful or stylized – but not accurate enough to be accepted as real. For many people, the human characters in this film are too unsettling to watch.

The fact that “The Polar Express” is still on display may be a testament to the trains’ allure, especially in snowy weather, and it’s certainly something Duluthians can appreciate. Will we get a “Christmas City Express” movie starring Tilly Norwood and Ken Buehler someday? Until that day, the next best thing is this movie starring Tom Hanks and Tom Hanks (and Tom Hanks, and Tom Hanks, and Tom Hanks and Tom Hanks).

Marcus Duluth Cinema, December 12-18

Quentin Tarantino once argued that when a film uses a pop song in an iconic scene, other filmmakers should stop using that song forever. What Tarantino did for “Stuck in the Middle with You” and “You Never Can Tell” was done by director Jeremiah S. Chechik achieved with Christmas lights. An over-the-top home lighting display was so memorably used in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” that the name “Clark Griswold” is now applied to anyone who taxes the power grid each December.

Anything but subtle, “Christmas Vacation” hits the sweet spot with its combination of lowest-common-denominator gags and the exaggerated vulnerability of Chevy Chase — an actor who wasn’t known for that quality before accepting his status as one of America’s definitive fathers.

Zeitgeist Zinema, December 13 & 20-21

In the 1980s, “It’s a Wonderful Life” was a prominent figure in the debate over the practice of colorization. Cinemagoers were horrified: Would an entire black-and-white film be subject to digital defilement?

The answer turned out to be no, and although you can still find color versions of this film, the default today has gone back to Frank Capra’s black-and-white original. It’s not the lack of color that makes “It’s a Wonderful Life” hard to watch, it’s the film’s powerful take on Jimmy Stewart’s frustrated hero. Despite the film’s happy ending, its message is clear: In life, you don’t get a second chance to do things.

Zeitgeist Zinema, 16 December

The entertainment industry has completely changed over the past four decades, and yet Richard Donner’s Reagan-era satire still stings. Don’t movies like “Violent Night” (2022) and “Red One” (2024) sound like they were dreamed up by Bill Murray’s eccentric TV executive Frank Cross?

This “A Christmas Carol” reimagining also stands out for the superb supporting cast, including Bobcat Goldthwait as an underling who goes into cold storage and Carol Kane as the Ghost of the Christmas Present. The most iconic scene, however, comes at the finale when a roasted Murray dominates the end credits and tries to convince moviegoers to sing along to “Put a Little Love in Your Heart.”

Zeitgeist Zinema, December 18 & 20-21

Joe Dante’s “Gremlins” was originally a summer release, and its horror elements are perfect for Halloween… but at its core, it’s a Christmas movie. The Gremlins performed Johnny Mathis’ “Do You Hear What I Hear?” But left the needle. before starting her suicidal rampage, and the use of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” in the film marked the beginning of a renaissance in singer Darlene Love’s career.

Beyond the festive atmosphere, the film remains at an astonishing level. This is a rare film that is both incredibly impressive and genuinely scary. If Dante had directed “Return of the Jedi,” you’d actually believe those Ewoks took down an army of stormtroopers.

Zeitgeist Zinema, 23 December

A hit Minneapolis stage production called “A Very Die Hard Christmas” ended its more than decade-long run in 2024, and it’s safe to say that the question it raised has now been definitively answered: Yes, Virginia, “Die Hard” is a Christmas movie. As fans like to say, it doesn’t feel like Christmas until Hans Gruber falls down Nakatomi Plaza.

Aside from its seasonal relevance, the film – in which Bruce Willis must save revelers at his estranged wife’s company’s Christmas party – is considered one of the most inventive and influential action films of all time. This is a peak performance from Willis, with Alan Rickman making an unforgettable film debut as terrorist mastermind Gruber.