Christmas movies have become so numerous that they touch upon all genres. Almost all of the Hallmark and Lifetime TV Christmas movies are now romance films, while Christmas horror flicks are also on the rise as traditional heartwarming holiday stories fall by the wayside. But there’s nothing we enjoy more during the holiday season than Christmas action movies.
Not every Christmas action movie can live up to the legend of Die Hard, but these films manage to pull off the rare feat of pulling at the heartstrings while also providing thrills and excitement. So for this holiday season, these are the three great Christmas action movies that you should watch.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
There’s a shorthand in Hollywood: If it’s a Shane Black film, it’s almost always set at Christmas. Black’s directorial debut, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, is no exception. A pre-Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. was well on his way towards a comeback as Harold “Harry” Lockhart, a thief who accidentally auditions to play a private investigator.
Harry soon ends up on a plane to Hollywood to shadow a real private investigator, “Gay” Perry van Shrike (Val Kilmer), in order to prepare for his next screen test. But when Harry lets his childhood friend, Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan), believe that he’s a real private investigator, she asks him to look for her missing sister. By the time that Harmony learns the truth, Harry and Perry are neck-deep in trouble.
Rent or buy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang on Google Play, Prime Video, YouTube, and Apple TV+.
Violent Night (2021)
Christmas action movies can’t get more Christmassy than Violent Night, a new yuletide tradition starring Stranger Things‘ David Harbour as Santa Claus. But this is a version of Santa we haven’t seen before, with a violent past and a very clear indifference to Christmas itself, in part because there are few people left who truly believe in the holiday and what it should stand for.
A young girl named Trudy (Leah Brady) is a rare exception to that rule, and she even truly believes in Santa himself. It’s a good thing too, because Santa finds himself at the home of Trudy’s grandmother, Gertrude (Beverly D’Angelo), just as her Succession-like family holiday is broken up by Scrooge (John Leguizamo) and his heavily armed thieves. These crooks mean business, but so does Santa. And he’ll slay anyone who dares to threaten Trudy, as Santa’s Christmas magical objects become instruments of war.
Watch Violent Night on Prime Video.
Die Hard 2 (1990)
The original Die Hard is perhaps the perfect Christmas action movie. But this year, let’s lay a wreath down for its sequel, Die Hard 2, which is also a Christmas action movie that deserves some love. This time, the McClane family Christmas is upended at an airport just outside of Washington D.C. as Holly McClane (Bonnie Bedelia) and hundreds of innocent passengers are unknowingly held hostage in the sky by renegade forces who have seized the air traffic control away from the authorities.
John McClane (Bruce Willis) is the first person who realizes that something is wrong. And when the airport police don’t believe McClane, he once again has to go solo against a literal army on Christmas Eve in order to bring his wife home safely.
Watch Die Hard 2 on Hulu.
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