Christmas has long been a favorite setting for action movie directors, as there’s something about the juxtaposition of holiday cheer against the hardcore violence of an R-rated action movie that makes the whole thing too tempting an opportunity to pass up. Indeed, there have been some Christmas action movie classics (many of which are written by Shane Black), which we dug into here, but now the time has come for you folks to have your say. What’s the greatest Christmas action movie? Is it a heavyweight like Die Hard or Lethal Weapon, or something more off the beaten path?
In making these lists, I was surprised at just how many action flicks take place around the holiday season. Granted, some of them are more obvious than others. I never realized First Blood was set at Christmas until watching it in 4K, where you can see how the police station Rambo gets taken into is decorated for the holidays. Other ones, like Cobra or The Last Boy Scout, also seem only loosely set around the holidays, while William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in L.A has absolutely nothing in it that suggests it takes place over the holidays, were it not for the documentary-like titles on-screen giving us the dates (I feel like the setting to this one was added as an afterthought). At any rate, take out poll below and let us know what you think is the greatest Christmas action movie!
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