Welcome to The Hollywood News Advent Calendar! Join us for the next 24 days as we run down the top Christmas movies and guide you to the perfect festive viewing. Featuring some of your favourite Christmas movies and some you’d probably forgotten (maybe even on purpose), but hey, it is Christmas after all… to see the calendar so far, click here.
A film that should definitely appear on THN’s list of festive favourites is one that many of our readers may not even know. HOSTILE HOSTAGES (or THE REF to give it its original US title) arrived in 1994 to very little publicity, possibly due the its bizarre US March release date and the fact it arrived in the UK effectively as a straight-to-video title.
Denis Leary is at his foul-mouthed best as downtrodden cat burglar Gus, whose planned night of Christmas Eve thievery turns sour when he falls foul of a hi-tech booby-trapped safe – and is suddenly a wanted man! Leary, a comedy writer and a celebrated stand-up-turned-actor/producer is sarcastically deadpan in this hilarious festive film from late director Ted Demme (BLOW, LIFE). Featuring a brilliant supporting cast of Judy Davis, Raymond J. Barry and Christine Barinski, and a pre-superstar Kevin Spacey, THE REF has tons of quotable lines for Leary to bounce off.
After taking a divorcing couple hostage – Lloyd and Caroline Chassuer – after his “alcoholic waste-of-fucking-life” getaway driver Murray bails, Gus decides to hide in the couple’s home and wait for his heated situation cool down. A road-block is set up to catch him, making Gus’ attempted escape all the more difficult. The horror that awaits him is the stuff of nightmares: when Lloyd’s overbearing mother, brother, and family arrive for the traditional and usually-disastrous Christmas dinner, Gus’ already-fragile patience is stretched further as he must pretend to be marriage counselor Dr Wong.
The scenes that follow are laugh-out-loud funny, and every screening has me in tears, even though I know exactly what’s coming. The traditional Scandinavian-style Christmas dinner scene has some of the most gut-bustingly hilarious exchanges of any adult-themed yuletide movie ever. Glynis John almost steals the movie as Lloyd’s mother Rose, whose vicious ‘under-the-breath’ remarks are literally a scream, one in-particular prompting Gus to temporally break his cover and sharply reply with, ‘Lady, your husband ain’t dead, he’s in hiding’. The always-reliable veteran Raymond J. Barry is also on top form as the town’s sheriff and whose inept officers would rather stay in the station and catch the end of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, instead of on the hunt.
If there is a fault with the film it’s the sub-plot involving the couple’s teen son Jessie, who pops up halfway through with a drawn-out blackmailing venture involving his military school principal (J.K. Simmons). It is, however, only a minor misstep and does not spoil the remainder of the film. In fact, his appearance acts in favour of Gus, as for the rest of the movie Jessie is tied up and used as leverage for the ‘on-the-edge’ career criminal.
For all you yet to see HOSTILE HOSTAGES or its better known moniker THE REF, buy, rent, or nab a copy during a Christmas Eve burglary. It’s a Christmas cracker, and will be a new favourite for the festive season and beyond.
Justin McGill
Dec 28, 2013 at 8:25 pm
Just going to say this should be considered a new Christmas classic. I dust my copy off at least once a year during the holidays. Is a shame that Spacey whose fine great dramatic work hasn’t done another comedy since around the time of this. Although he did appear lampooning his previous boss from hell in Swimming with Sharks in Horrible Bosses.